A Slytherin Black Sheep
by Lyta Padfoot
Summary: The tale of Edana Rosier, a Slytherin who attended Hogwarts from 19801987, in between the marauders and Harry. Features social turmoil, politics, backstabbing, plotting, revenge, romance, Quidditch, Bill Weasley, Charlie Weasley and future
1. The Letter

"A Slytherin Black Sheep" **   
Chapter One: The Letter **

Egypt,  
July 29, 1995 

Edana Rosier placed her reading glasses in their case and poured herself a goblet of palm wine as she contemplated the letter in front of her. It amazed her how such a small thing could so easily upset her world. She drummed her fingers on the mahogany surface of her desk for a moment. It was a habit she had picked up from one of the American wizards, Burns, though it drove her to distraction when he did it.

The letter had been brought to her by one of the staff house elves, with that delivery she could be confident that the letter contained no unpleasant hexes. The Egyptian Ministry of Magic had only last year dismantled a fairly sizable dark arts cult and security was still quite tight.

The letter was written on parchment, not the heavy and durable papyrus favored locally, and her name was printed neatly in ordinary enough black ink. She did not recognize the handwriting.

Finally she sliced open the letter. Inside was another piece of parchment covered in more black ink and a color photograph. It was pictured the Dark Mark hovering over a small cottage, and from the style and quality of the photograph it had to have been taken recently. Edana shivered, turning her eyes from the picture to the letter.

__

Dear Ms. Rosier,

You may or may not be aware of recent events here at home, but Lord Voldemort has returned. Three nights ago, Death Eaters were narrowly prevented from stealing a crate of Egyptian artifacts excavated by Muggle archeologists from the British Museum. These artifacts appear to be charmed, and your name was mentioned as an expert in such antiquities. If you can assist in the examination of such artifacts, please respond by return owl.

Sincerly,

Albus Dumbledore

Edana read the letter twice more. The last thing she wanted was to return to England. She fled the country upon her graduation from Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry, determined to put the past behind her and carve out a niche for herself in a place where no one recognized her surname. She turned her interest and skill with charms into a successful career with the Wizarding Archeological Society identifying, analyzing and dating the charms used on the numerous tombs in the area around the Valley of the Kings.

Just the other day her pet theory had been proven correct by one of her rivals had made it all the sweeter. All Edana wanted to do was savor her victory and complete the last bit of work left on the Muggle-repelling charms used on Imhotep's tomb and immerse herself in a new project. Certainly she had never foreseen a trip to England in her immediate future.

"The Dark Lord has returned." Edana chided herself for being selfish. As much as she dreaded a return to England, the letter reminded her that in the minds of most English wizards the name Rosier equaled Death Eater. Her stained family name always bothered her, perhaps she should see this as an opportunity to restore a degree of dignity and integrity to the name Rosier.

She located a blank roll of papyrus and composed a brief response. Then she wrote to her superiors at W.A.S., she was certain there would be no difficulty in obtaining time off. She had not left the country in eight years and had holiday time stockpiled.

She sent the letter to England with her screech owl, Strix, and delivered the holiday request in person. As anticipated, her superiors granted her request and wished her a lovely time.

A week later Edana climbed off her broom in front of her family home, wincing as she did. She hated port keys and had never been able to pass the apparation test, so broom travel was her primary travel option even if it was uncomfortable on long journeys. Once she righted her wind rumpled hair and clothing, she surveyed her environment with no small feeling of deja vu.

The house on Vivienne Lane was exactly as she remembered it: a three story brick affair built during the reign of the first Queen Elizabeth. Large stone dragons guarded the doorway. They were charmed to growl at intruders, but were motionless and mute for the moment.

Edana had to undo the layers of security charms set upon the house eight years earlier. Finally, exhausted, she was able to slide the key into the lock and open the massive oak front door, which bore the family coat of arms, and enter the house. Unoccupied for the better part of a decade, save for the two house elves, the dwelling was as quiet as the interior of the tombs she had worked on. 

Thanks to the house elves the furniture was free of dust and the floors gleamed with recent polishing. Edana took off her shoes, a habit acquired in Egypt to avoid tracking in sand, and hung her cloak up on one of the ornamental brass pegs near the door. As with the outside, the inside appeared just as it had been eight years earlier.

The overall effect of the house was one of worn opulence. Only an expert would recognize the significance of the painters and sculptors hired by past generations to immortalize their images. An antiquarian might note the value of the entry way carpet or that the dagger in the glass case in the library room once belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw herself, as it bore her Eagle emblem and had been inherited by a granddaughter who married into the Rosier family. To any observer the place was a veritable museum of priceless antiques, however a discerning eye could see that anything of more modern purchase quite obviously lacked the high quality standard among the older items.

The house was a testament to the once powerful Rosier family. The Rosiers were one of the few ancient pure-blood families without a hint of involvement in the Dark Arts. Their wealth came from shrewd investment and marrying well dowered witches. Both the reputation and fortune were shattered in the late eighteenth century by the promising union of Octavius Rosier and Lucinda Malfoy. The Lucinda's brother had been arrested for brokering Dark Arts objects as a way of supplementing the meager inheritance left to him as the second son. Desperate to save his own neck, he gave the Ministry the names of the handful of customers he either knew or who were foolish enough to use their actual names in their dealings with him. However that was not enough to placate the Aurors and Malfoy began to supply other names, including that of his wealthy and respected brother-in-law.

No evidence was ever unearthed, aside from Malfoy's testimony, but most of the Rosier fortune was drained by the ensuing legal battle which dragged on for the better part of a decade. Three times Octavius was imprisoned in Azkaban and released before the case against him was dismissed on a technicality, but by then the dementors had succeeded in driving him insane and he committed suicide less than a year later. That he was never formally cleared led many in the wizarding community to believe the charges against Octavious were true.

Ironically the tarnished family reputation led future generations to abandon the anti-Dark Arts precepts of their ancestors. Octavious and Lucinda's son Evan, for whom Edana's brother was named, was rumored to have murdered the uncle who accused his father though nothing could be proven.

Edana had once consulted the massive oil painting of Lucinda in her ivory betrothal robes that hung in the library to determine her opinion on that particular rumor. Lucinda was a beautiful woman with waist length dark hair and pewter gray eyes that missed nothing. While she was quiet helpful in finding books, Lucinda flatly refused to even consider the question Edana asked her. 

In Lucinda's day the house might have appeared a trifle severe, but the slightly worn furniture, sun faded silks and carpets gave the place a certain hominess, or it least it seemed to Edana.

Her comparison of the house as she remembered it and as it appeared now was interrupted by the arrival of the two family house elves. When she decided to leave England, she had tried to free them, but Squeaky and Tuffy begged her not to do so and she kept them on to keep the house in order. 

"Welcome back Miss Edana!" Squeaky exclaimed.

Deja vu struck her again. Squeaky had said just that, in exactly the same tone everything she return from for the summer from Hogwarts.

"Thank you Squeaky. The house looks wonderful."

"We was not aware you were back, Miss Edana." Tuffy began apologetically and Edana mentally kicked herself for not owling them.

"Its no matter. I doubt I will stay overnight. I just wanted to see the house again."

The two house elves departed, leaving Edana once again to her thoughts and memories.


	2. Evan

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
**Chapter Two: Evan**

England,  
September 18, 1979

Edana Katherine Rosier was born on September 18, 1969 at half past three in the afternoon. Nine years separated Edana's birth from that of her older brother Evan. With such a difference in age between them, one might have expected that the siblings would not be very close. Indeed, Evan did not find his baby sister to be of any interest until his second year at Hogwarts. One morning in late January he was taken out of Herbology by his Head of House, Professor Wormwood, to be informed of his father's sudden demise.

After the death of his father, Augustus Rosier, Evan grew closer to his mother and sister. They were the only living family he had, aside from a squib uncle living in London, and he was very protective of them. He dutifully returned home from school every Christmas and summer, owled frequently, and always remembered their birthdays and other special occasions with gifts.

Edana's tenth birthday was no exception. Even though Evan was very busy with his new job at the Ministry, he arrived bright and early on the eighteenth of September bearing a long, thin, package wrapped in silver paper that could only be a broom.

"Happy birthday sweetness." Evan said as he hugged his sister. Then he went to greet their mother with a second hug.

"You should not have bought her a broom." Lenore Rosier chided her son. She a tall, stately woman with black hair usually worn in a chignon, golden brown eyes, and an aristocratic nose that was one of the few features other than height that she shared with her son. Both children favored their father with their russet hair and gray eyes, though Edana had her mothers oval face and fine bone structure. Her family was among the most ancient of pure blood lines, a fact she was quite proud of. Lenore Rosier's specialty was in amulets, which she both created and repaired, though the creation was difficult and time consuming so she was seldom able to manage more than one a year

"She is almost old enough to go to Hogwarts. I thought Edana ought to have a better broom than that awful Shooting Star that Dad bought me." Evan replied.

"It is hard to believe she will be old enough for Hogwarts in another year. I am not sure I'm quite ready to let her go." Lenore said, shaking her head wistfully.

"But Mother, it's not for a whole year!" Edana chipped in. "That is almost forever!"

Evan and Lenore laughed. "The time will pass before you know it." Evan told his disbelieving sister before he changed the topic. "Don't you want to open your gift?"

Edana's eyes flashed with excitement as Evan handed her the gift. "Of course, I do!"

"Not until after lunch. You know the tradition." Lenore reminded her daughter firmly.

When is lunch?" Edana sulked.

"In a few minutes. I made your favorite: chicken and potatoes." Her mother said.

"Some on, sweetness. I bet the time will go faster if we help out and set the table. I'll get the plates and pour the drinks while you take care of the silverware." Evan suggested.

"All right." Edana started off.

"We're using the good china and silver since it is Edana's birthday." Lenore said walking into the dinning room and returning a minute later with a box containing silver flatware, three bone china plates rimmed in gold and three crystal glasses. Evan took the glasses and plates from his mother and set them on the table while his sister placed the silverware.

"Forks go on the other side of the plate." Lenore told her daughter. Edana moved the forks.

As Edana finished, her mother and brother brought in the food and the family sat down to eat. The conversation stayed light, discussing things Edana would need for school, Evan's prospects for promotion within the next year, a scandal involving a player on the Wimbourne Wasps.

"He rigged all the Quaffles?" Edana asked incredulously.

Evan nodded.. An injury from a Bludger in the Quidditch final his seventh year had ended any chance he might have had to play Quidditch professionally, but he still loved the game and took an offer from an old family friend to join the Ministry. He worked in the Department of Magical Sports and Games, Standards and Practices Division, which supervised and regulated all League teams.

"How?"

"That is still under investigation, but the current theory is that he found out when the locking charms were renewed and went to the storage facility when they were weakest."

"Your work sounds so exciting." Edana said.

"Its actually boring and has a lot of paperwork, but it has its uses, and its moments."

"Any girlfriends?" Mrs. Rosier shifted the topic over to one that inevitably came up every time Evan visited. "Estella's son is still seeing the Radley girl, we expect to hear they are engaged any day now, but I have not heard of you dating any nice young witches in over a year."

"I've been busy, Mother."

"I thought you said your job was boring." Edana said.

Mrs. Rosier shot her son a warning look. "Just because it's dull doesn't mean there isn't a great deal to do." Evan said.

"Edana, why don't you help me clear the table and then we can open your birthday presents." Mrs. Rosier suggested.

Edana helped her mother clean up. When they were finished she was permitted to attacking her birthday presents. She was finally able to rip the paper off of the broomstick and pull the lid off of the box. Edana gasped at the sight of the shiny broom she immediately recognized from all the magazines. "A Cleansweep 6!"

"You bought your sister a Cleansweep 6? Evan Korbin Rosier! It's too much for someone her age."

"You bought me a Cleansweep 3 when I made the House Quidditch team." Evan defended himself.

"You were thirteen."

"A Cleansweep 6 is far safer than any other broom currently on the market. It has better breaking and only the most powerful of magics can interfere with it, which is certainly not the case with that old Shooting Star. I would never give Edana anything dangerous."

"She always insists on flying too fast," mumbled Mrs. Rosier. She shot a disapproving look at her daughter. "All right. She can keep the broom, but woe betide you if I find that you tried to take it to school with you, understood? First years are not allowed to bring their own brooms."

"Yes, Mother." Mrs. Rosier allowed herself a small smile. All of her daughter's other presents were practical things like new robes, quills and books. Maybe Edana needed a diversion. There were not many children her age in the area, and the parents of the few who lived nearby refused to permit a friendship between their offspring and Edana Rosier. They still whispered about her father, about how he died, and that was enough to convince the local wizarding families that the Rosiers were involved in the Dark Arts. Mrs. Rosier told her daughter that such accusations were nonsense and that the Ministry had made a mistake, and admitted they had erred, in the matter of Augustus Rosier. But with the Daily Prophet reporting murders, abductions, and violence by Death Eaters almost every day, it was easier to hang onto old suspicions.

"It is easy to blame the dead." Mrs. Rosier said in the distant tone she often used when speaking of her husband. "Unless they are a ghost, they cannot denounce their accusers, and they can do no more harm. Many would rather believe a criminal is dead and buried than still at large."

Edana understood, but wished her mother would tell her the specifics of what had happened to her father. All she knew was that he had been accused of being a Death Eater and something had gone horribly wrong when the Ministry tried to arrest him. The Ministry offered a formal apology, but refused to go beyond a simple discipline of the Auror in question. Aurors were simply too valuable in such dark times.

The situation was rather moot at the moment. The Auror had been killed in a Death Eater attack the previous January. Edana had seen pictures of him in the _Prophet_. The article on him covered his careeer but neglected to mention the fatal blunder that cost her father his life. She found it difficult to sympathize with his wife and children as the writer at the _Prophet_ so obviously did. They had the support of the community, unlike the Rosiers who were shunned by their neighbors. The only visitors they ever had were Evan, Uncle Brian, and the handful of old school friends her mother kept in contact with. Edana could not wait until she was able to go Hogwarts. She had never told her mother or Evan, but she was looking forward to making friends with others her age the most of all, even more than playing on a real Quidditch team.

Autumn faded into winter. They received an unusually high amount of snowfall and the spring was far wetter than normal. Walking on the ground was like stepping on a wet sponge. Edana spent a great deal of her time when she was not flying in her room reading. Her mother insisted that she not be idle on dreary days and wanted her to prepare for Hogwarts.

Evan came to visit on Christmas, and once in April. He seldom owled them and when Edana questioned her mother as to why Evan was not coming by or writing very often, Mrs. Rosier pressed her lips together in a tight line and reminded her daughter that her brother was new to the Ministry and the newest employees were often saddled with the most difficult and cumbersome tasks.

Then, in mid July, Edana's Hogwarts letter arrived.

She had gotten up early to practice diving before a rainstorm that was expected later in the morning when a huge owl flew right over to her. It did not have the look of something from Evan, and he always addressed things to both his sister and his mother, so Edana knew what it was even before she glimpsed the purple wax seal. She leaped off her broom and ran full tilt into the house, startling one of the two family house elves, waving the letter in her hand. Mrs. Rosier looked ready with a reprimand when she saw her youngest child running indoors until she saw the letter and a smile blossomed on her face.

"I had no doubts that you would get in." Mrs. Rosier said proudly. She opened a drawer and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill, which she handed to Edana. "We'll owl your brother with the good news."

Evan showed up the next day and hugged his little sister enthusiastically. He insisted on being the one to take Edana to Diagon Alley to get her school things. Mrs. Rosier agreed as she had a client coming by in the afternoon to discuss the feasibility of repairing a damaged amulet. She gave Evan not only the list, but a moke skin moneybag containing sufficient gold.

"Don't bother with the robes." Mrs. Rosier told them. "I've had the house elves alter your old ones to fit your sister. I've marked the other items we already have on the list. Also, Edana may purchase a pet, a toad or rat. Something not too pricey."

"I hate toads and rats!" Edana complained. "I want a cat."

"I cannot afford to spend eight galleons on a cat for you. Your school things are quite expensive enough. Be grateful I'll allowing a pet at all. If you make the Quidditch team, we will discuss the matter again." Mrs. Rosier replied crossly. 

Edana scowled, but Evan was soon able to restore her good mood with tales of his own experiences at Hogwarts. By the time they had flooed to Diagon Alley, Edana was all smiles and excitement.

They took care of her potions ingredients, supplies and books (Edana would be taking Evan's old school caldron), which left only her wand and pet. Evan ushered her into Ollivanders wand shop and she started to try out wands. The fifth prove to be the charm. As soon as she touched it, Edana felt connected to the wand and as she waved it through the air green and silver sparks followed the path set by the wand.

"Ebony, ten and one half inches, contains one unicorn tail hair. Excellent for Charm work, though you might find it tricky with curses." Mr. Ollivanders informed her. The old man seemed pleased to have found her the perfect wand so quickly.

Edana glanced over to her brother to see what Evan thought of her wand, but he was not paying any attention to her. Instead he was staring intently at a couple strolling by the shop. The man was tall with exceptionally messy hair and carried a baby in his arms. The woman with him had dark red hair and was very pretty. She noticed his staring and tugged on the man's sleeve. He hugged the baby tighter and brought out his wand. Both hurried their steps and were soon out of sight.

"Evan?"

"What is it?" Evan asked irritated, then he saw the wand in her hand and smiled. "Oh you have found your wand. That was quick, but you don't like to dally do you sweetness?"

Edana waved her wand around the shop again, sending a mass of emerald sparks everywhere. "Ebony and unicorn hair, ten and a half inches."

"How much for the wand?"

"Five galleons, three sickles." Evan handed the man the appropriate coins and hustled Edana from the store.

"I think it is time I took you home." Evan told her outside the shop.

"Mother said I could get a rat or a toad." Edana reminded him.

Evan glanced down the street in the direction the couple had been going in, Edana followed his gaze but did not see them. Evan sighed, then smiled again. "I guess we can get you an animal, but not a rat or a toad. I'll get you an owl or a cat, it can be an early birthday gift."

"Did you know those people?" Edana asked as they walked toward the Magical Menagerie.

"Which people?" Evan asked evasively.

"The ones you were watching while we were in the wand shop."

Evan considered his words carefully before answering. "We were in school together. The wizard is a pure-blood. His wife is Muggle-born."

Edana was shocked. She had been raised to believe blood should not be mixed. "He married a Mudblood?"

"Tradition and purity of blood mean nothing to certain wizards. Some families no longer keep to the old ways, but that will change." Evan replied with an odd steel in his voice as he steered his sister into the Magical Menagerie.

Five minutes later they came out of the shop with Edana holding a gray kitten in one arm and a bag of cat supplies her brother had indulgently charmed to be feather light in the other.

"Thank you so much for Shadow!" Edana said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Shadow? You have him named already?"

Edana nodded happily. "He looks like a Shadow."

Mrs. Rosier had been able to repair her customer's amulet, but it had drained her and she was not in a very good mood when her children stepped out of the fireplace and brushed the soot off their robes. She was especially not pleased to see Shadow and prepared to scold her son, when Evan silenced her with a gesture.

"The cat is an early birthday present. I thought Edana ought to have a decent pet. She'd be laughed at if she brought a toad to school. They are useless creatures."

"You spoil her." Mrs. Rosier sighed, collapsing into a chair and closing her eyes for a moment. "Weren't toads popular when you started at Hogwarts? You begged me for one."

"But Dad insisted I bring an owl." Evan reminded her with a laugh. "Toads were only popular because some of the fifth years held toad jumping contests in the dungeons. The rest placed bets on the outcome. A particularly troublesome quartet of Gryffindors ratted on us. Cost Slytherin eighty points all told."

"Did your toad win a lot?" Edana asked, interested.

"More than she lost." Evan replied. He glanced out the window. "I need to go. It will be dark soon."

Mrs. Rosier's face suddenly became apprehensive and embraced her son, crying in an uncharacteristic display of emotion. "Take care."

"I will." Evan promised, conjuring a handkerchief for his mother. Then he turned to hug his sister and ruffle her hair. "I don't want to hear that you got caught doing anything that might cost your house points, understood, sweetness?"

"I won't get caught." Edana declared. Her brother grinned before his family led him out back beyond the anti-apparation charms laid down by his and Edana's grandmother.


	3. Unfavorable Impressions

"A Slytherin Black Sheep" **   
Chapter Three: ** ** Unfavorable Impressions**

The time seemed to crawl by. Edana poured over her school books and tried to imagine what it would be like to be in a place with hundreds of others her own age. In a rare moment of openness, her mother regaled her with stories from her own schooling, including telling her daughter about how she had accidentally knocked her future husband off his broom during their very first flying lesson.

At last the first of September finally arrived. Evan came by to wish Edana well and offer a few pointers before apparating to work. Then Mrs. Rosier and Edana wrestled Edana's heavy black trunk into the kitchen fireplace and flooed to King's Cross Station.

Edana had often accompanied her mother in sending Evan off to school or in picking him up for holidays. She had no difficulty finding and getting onto Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Once on the platform, Mrs. Rosier hugged her daughter and fought back tears.

"I cannot believe you are old enough to go." Mrs. Rosier said in explanation as she dabbed at her eyes.

Edana shifted her weight from one foot to the other feeling awkward. Her mother was not a very emotionally expressive woman and when she did show her feelings to her daughter, Edana was never quite sure how to react. She settled for hugging her mother and murmuring something she thought sounded reassuring about how she still had years to go before she was all grown up.

"You should go." Mrs. Rosier said suddenly. She was making an effort to recover her control. "All the good seats will be taken unless you hurry."

With her mother's assistance and a quick spell or two, Edana heaved her trunk onto the train and said her good-byes. Before she knew it, her mother had gone home and she was utterly alone on the train. Edana swallowed hard as she fought to suppress the panic that covered her like a wet sheet. She had seldom been far from home or family members and had limited experience with others her own age. How would she manage?

"If Evan can do it, so can I." She told herself firmly. She claimed an unoccupied seat and pulled out a book on the lives of the four founders of Hogwarts to pass the time with.

"Excuse me?" A soft voice asked. Edana looked up to see a tallish girl with lots of curly dark brown hair and thick glasses standing a few feet away. She was already wearing her Hogwarts robes with the black tie and lack of house emblem that identified her as a first year. "Are you are a first year?"

Edana said she was. The girl smiled nervously.

"I haven't met any other first years on the train. Do you mind if I sit here next to you?"

"Please." Edana said gesturing at the empty seat. The girl sank gratefully into it.

"There doesn't seem to be very many of us this year." The girl said sadly, shaking her head until her dark hair flopped into her face and covered her eyes. "My sister told me there were loads of people in her year. The Sorting took ages, bet they are through with us in a snap. My name is Celinda, Celinda Green."

"Edana Rosier. It is nice to meet you. I haven't seen any other first years either. You're the first."

"What house are you hoping to get into? I hope I'm a Hufflepuff. My Dad was one, so is my sister, and they have won the House Cup for the last three years!" Celinda enthused.

Edana was about to reply when the door to their compartment was flung open by a boy with brilliant green hair that was obviously charmed.

"You bastards!" The boy snarled only to be answered with gales of laughter from another compartment before he slammed the door shut.

"Do you need any help?" Edana asked politely. The boy blushed hard when he noticed the two girls, making him look like a bizarre Christmas ornament.

"Could please you fix my hair?" He asked hopefully.

Edana fished around in her pocket for her wand. "_Finite Incantantum_!"

The boy's hair changed to a sandy blond.

"Thanks." He said, relieved. "Some older kids did this as a joke. I didn't think it was very funny."

"You are lucky. That is practically the only bit of magic I know." Edana told him with a wry grin as she shoved her wand back into her pocket.

"You know," Celinda observed the boy, craning her neck like a bird. "You are holding your wand upside down."

"Oh, thanks." The boy blushed and flipped his wand over. "My name is Patrick Rollins, by the way. You know this is the first time I've been around magic people, other than when I went to Diagon Alley, anyway. I didn't even know about any of this until I got my letter."

"Oh," Edana said offhandedly. "You're a Mudblood."

Celinda jerked upright and whipped out her wand, glaring daggers at Edana while Patrick stared at the two girls, clearly baffled.

"What did you call him?" Celinda demanded, a dangerous look in her eyes and strong enough to be visible in spite of her thick glasses.

Edana did not like to be threatened or told what to do by a virtual stranger. She pulled her own wand out of her pocket for the second time in less than five minutes. "You heard what I said."

"Apologize. Now." Celinda ordered.

Edana shook her head Apologize, to a Mudblood? "No."

"_Loco_-"

"_Expelliarmus_!" Another voice interrupted. All three first years turned to face a pair of sixth year girls standing in the compartment door with their wands drawn. Both wore silver prefect badges. One was scowling while the other was toying with their wands and fighting to conceal her amusement.

The disapproving prefect was a Hufflepuff. She was tall, with very long black hair, brown eyes, and a face that made people wonder if perhaps there was some Veela in her ancestry. Edana wished that she could wear her hair loose like that, but it always became tangled or get in her eyes when she did.

The second prefect, who held their wands, was pretty in an ordinary way. Her hair was golden brown and pulled back into a braid. Freckles were scattered across her ski-jumped nose, one of her eyes was pale blue while the other was green. When she stepped forward to return the wands, Edana saw the house crest on her robes and the silver and green stripes on her tie. She was a Slytherin.

"You should know better than to fight on the train." The Hufflepuff said sternly, looking each one of them in the eye.

"She," Celinda scrambled to assign guilt away from herself, and pointed at Edana. "Called him a Mudblood."

Both prefects stared at Edana. "Is that true?"

Edana refused to answer, instead she looked down her shoes.

"If you have any sense at all, you'll never use that term again. Since you haven't been sorted, I can't recommend that points be taken from your house, but if another incident like this occurs I will see to it that your punishment is harsh." The Hufflepuff said crisply, then turned to leave but was stopped by her Slytherin companion.

"Melissa, I don't think we should leave these three here by themselves. It would only bring another round of trouble." The Slytherin Prefect pointed out.

"Good idea, Aileen." Melissa the Hufflepuff agreed. She had Celinda and Patrick follow her to another carriage.

"You, come with me." Aileen gestured for Edana to come forward and shepherded her through the train in the opposite direction as Melissa and the other two first years. "I'm Aileen Travers, one of the Slytherin prefects. You seem familiar. What's your name?"

"Edana Rosier."

"Any relation to Evan Rosier?" Aileen asked in a cool but curious manner.

"He's my older brother."

The older girl nodded. "I thought you seemed familiar. Look, Rosier, remember what Melissa said. It's not smart to go around insulting Muggle-borns. Especially in times like these, triply so if you are sorted into Slytherin. There are still people who remember your brother, and not all of them with fondness."

"Why?"

Aileen paused. "Most Death Eaters, but by no means all, are from old Slytherin families. Start insulting Muggle-borns and the other students will think you are one of them. Almost everyone has lost someone they care about to You-Know-Who and his followers and they are perfectly willing to take what revenge they can on anyone they believe is connected to them, even if the connection only exists in their minds. Defend yourself and you only solidify the connection in their minds. Its a no-win situation for Slytherins. I've seen it happen many times before and the results are not pretty." The prefect shuddered, then hustled Edana into an empty compartment before departing without a backwards glance.

* * *

Dusk had long sense given way to night by the time the Hogwarts Express pulled into Hogsmeade station. An enormous bearded man who introduced himself as Hagrid called all thirty-three first years over to him before leading them down a darkened path to the lake. Edana was not pleased at all to see that part of her journey to Hogwarts would be over water. Boats had the effect of making her turn as green as Patrick's hair.

Edana ended up in a boat with two other girls. As they chatted about the likelihood that they would be placed in the same house, Edana gripped the sides of the boat until her fingers ached. She tried to focus on the others in her boat as a way of distracting herself.

Though it was difficult to discern much about appearances in the dark, one girl was a lanky brunette with a turned up nose. The other was an elegant young witch with black hair.

Edana clenched her jaw and closed her eyes. She hoped this ride would not be long.

The brunette regarded her with concern. "Are you all right?"

Edana shook her head in the negative.

"Hold on, we're almost there." The girl said.

The second girl pulled out her wand and pointed it at Edana. "_Tranquillitas alvus_."

Immediately Edana felt better. "Thank you."

"No problem at all." Said the girl, pocketing her wand. "I'm Thalia Blakely."

"Edana Rosier."

"Tabitha Stebbins." The other girl supplied. "Thalia and I met on the train."

"What houses you think you'll get into?" Edana asked.

Tabitha shrugged. "I'm not very choosy. I just want to be put in a good house, though to be honest I think I'll either be in Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw. I'm not very brave or cunning."

"I'm certain I'll be a Ravenclaw." Thalia announced. "Done of the others really sound as though they suit me. You?"

"Most of my family have been in Slytherin, but that is not guarantee that I will be as well."

"Slytherin?" Tabitha asked, shooting a look at Thalia. She scooted away from Edana.

"They're not all Death Eaters." Thalia said logically. "If all Slytherins were Death Eaters, they'd have shut the house down ages ago."

"I guess so." Tabitha did not sound very convinced and regarded Edana with suspicion.

The remainder of the ride passed without further exchange, though whether the silence was due to the turn the conversation had taken or a sudden interest in the spectacular view of the castle was uncertain. Finally they reached the shore and the first years were able to climb out of the boats and followed the giant up to the castle. He knocked thrice at the door and a dark haired witch in scarlet robes opened the door to allowed them inside.

"Welcome to Hogwarts School. I am Professor McGongall." In a few moments you will join the rest of the school and be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is among the more important steps in you magical education because will you attend Hogwarts, you will end with your house, sleep in your house dormitory, spend your free time in your house common room, and take classes with your house. You may even play on your house Quidditch team. There are four school houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin, each named for the four founders of Hogwarts. Older students will educate you in the history of whatever house you are sorted into."

"Your achievements will earn points for your house, trouble making will cause them to be taken away. The house with the most points at the end of the year receives the House Cup, a very high honor indeed. Let us hope that you will prove an asset to whatever house you are placed into today."

Edana allowed her speech about the school house to pass over her. It was mostly for Mudbloods anyway. She straightened her robes and tried to tidy her hair. It was always good to make the best first impression possible, she recalled her mother saying. Then Edana blushed realizing that she had already made an unfavorable impression on several people. _But only one was a Slytherin, and she wasn't in your year_, the little voice in her head whispered.

McGongall led the first years into the Great Hall and Edana openly gawked. She was so entranced by the multitudes of floating candles and the bewitched ceiling that she completely missed the Sorting Hat's song, only returning her focus to the present when she heard clapping.

"When I call your name, you will come forward, sit on the stool, and place the hat on your head." Professor McGonagall said. She had a roll of parchment in her hands and stared at it a moment before calling out for Amiti, Alexander.

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Arlington, Druscilla!"

A blond girl swept forward and place the hat on her head. A minute later it cried out "SLYTHERIN!" and Arlington, Druscilla strolled over to the Slytherin table with a very self-satisfied expression on her face.

Edana watched as Blakely, Thalia was made a Ravenclaw as she had predicted while in the boat, and Cross, Malina was declared a Slytherin. The second new Slytherin of the year was not a very pleasant looking girl. For a moment Edana found herself hoping she would not have to share a dormitory with her. Then she chided herself for what her Uncle Brian referred to as "judging a book by its cover." It was not wise to label someone, particularly a Slytherin, without the benefit of any real knowledge about them. People often had unexpected resources.

"Edwards, Malcolm!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

"Flannery, Rose!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"Green, Celinda!"

Celinda appeared very nervous and approached the Sorting Hat like a condemned prisoner walking toward their place of execution. With a burst of courage she jammed that hat onto her head. It was not there very long before calling out a house.

"HUFFLEPUFF"

The names went on until Patrick Rollins, the Mudblood boy from the train, was called. Edana knew her turn would be soon. She watched him being welcomed over at the Gryffindor table and readied herself.

"Rosier, Edana!"

Edana walked over to the stool and placed the hat on her head, all the while trying not to think about the hundreds of eyes upon her. The Sorting Hat was far too big for her and came down almost to the tip of her nose. It did not have the most appealing smell about it.

"What have we here? Intelligence, charm, and power. Now, where shall I put you?"

"Slytherin," Edana whispered, wishing the hat would call out the house and be done with it.

"Slytherin, eh? You'd do well there, but you'd also do well in Ravenclaw. Still, if you are certain, then it must be SLYTHERIN!"

Edana whipped off the hat, grateful her sorting was over and that she had the house she wanted. She walked over to the Slytherin house table with as much grace as she could muster. The applause and congratulations were very sweet indeed to her ears.


	4. Slytherin House Traditions

"A Slytherin Black Sheep" **   
Chapter Four: Slytherin House Traditions **

"I had a feeling you'd be one of us." Aileen commented in a bemused manner as Edana sat down at the Slytherin table. "Welcome to Slytherin House."

"Thank you." Edana whispered.

"Rosier," Blond haired Druscilla Arlington mused aloud. "I've heard that name before from my older sister."

"My brother Evan was a beater on the Slytherin House team. He graduated in 78." Edana offered.

The other girl nodded, pleased to have her suspicion confirmed. "I thought so. I'm Dru Arlington. What was your first name again?"

"Edana."

"Its a pleasure to meet you Edana Rosier." Dru replied formally, leaning over to shake her new housemate's hand. Her pale blue eyes twinkled, as though she found the greeting somehow amusing.

"Likewise it is a joy to have met you, Dru Arlington." Edana said with equal formality.

There were now only four students left to be sorted. Tabitha, who quickly joined Thalia at the Ravenclaw table; a boy with fiery red hair; a black girl; and a tall boy who appeared bored.

"Weasley, Charles!"

The Sorting Hat lost no time in proclaiming him a Gryffindor.

"They needn't have bothered sorting him. Everyone knows that Weasleys and Gryffindors are one and the same, always have been." Dru quipped as the boy sprinted over to the Gryffindor table and was embraced by an older student who, from the familial resemblance, had to be his brother.

"There is always room for surprises. Besides, its a tradition." Malina Cross said in languid tones, speaking for the first time since Edana joined the Slytherin table. "And to be a tradition it must be repeated."

"True." Dru acknowledged.

"Wilkes, Kali."

"SLYTHERIN!"

Edana clapped for the new girl who took a seat directly across the table from her. She was beaming with excitement and immediately introduced herself to the other first years.

"Zeno, Braedan!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

The bored looking boy, Braedan Zeno, took a seat next at the Slytherin table to the only other male first year. Unfortunately this seat also placed him next to the Slytherin House ghost, a gaunt spirit covered in silver blood, called the Bloody Baron . Braedan sat as far from the ghost as he could; the ghost appeared not to notice the boy's unease.

"There are not many boys in our year, just Amiti and Zeno." Dru noted as the feast began, her lip curling a bit with displeasure.

The two boys, however, were quick to seize upon the advantages of only having two in their dormitory. "We'll have loads of space!" Edana heard Alex Amiti exclaim to Braedon.

"Its like that with all the houses." Edana informed the other girls, remembering what she had been told by Celinda on the train. "Its an off year. At least they are nice looking."

Edana's last comment was seconded by the girls.

"Ah well," Malina drawled, "at least with such as small pool of candidates, it will mean better odds for being chosen as a prefect or Head Girl."

"Ambitious, are we?" Dru chuckled.

"Is there anything wrong with ambition?"

"No. Not here anyway. Aren't Slytherins supposed to be cunning and ambitious?" Edana queried.

"Well, at least we'll have an easier time ingratiating ourselves with out house head. Fewer of us to remember." Dru said. Someone laughed behind her and she whirled around to insult whoever it was, then backed down when she realized the person was older than she was and thus more practiced in hexes and other spells.

"I doubt that tactic will get you very far considering the odds against our house head completing the year." A third year told them.

"Why?" Dru demanded.

"You'll see," he replied airily.

Dru muttered something under her breathe. Just then Prefect Aileen Travers returned to see how the first years were faring.

"Is something the matter with our head of house?" Edana asked.

Aileen looked toward the head table, As Edana and the others followed Aileen gaze toward the current Head of Slytherin and Potions Mistress, they immediately understood the third year's comment. The Professor's hair was as thin and white as cobwebs, thick spectacles rested on her long Roman nose. Her skin was like rumpled parchment that had been fished out of a dustbin, smoothed out and stretched tight over her birdlike bones. She looked as though the slightest touch would cause her to crumble into dust.

"Professor Wormwood, our head of house and mistress of potions." Aileen confirmed. "Only 176 years old."

"Only?" Edana heard Dru hiss. Evan had said she was pretty old, but Wormwood appeared to be so ancient each breathe was a miracle. Was it possible for someone to be that frail?

Aileen nodded. "She wasn't so bad term before last, she looked fifty years younger than she does now. Death Eaters killed her daughter, son-in-law, a grandson and one of her great-grandchildren. She aged thirty years overnight when she heard the news, and another twenty when one of her surviving great-grandchildren announced his intention to become an Auror." Everyone knew the death rate for Aurors had skyrocketed in recent years so the first years could understand the Professor's concern. Edana noticed a distant look in Aileen's mismatched eyes, but the prefect shook herself out of it before continuing to speak. "They say the governors are searching frantically for a replacement. No one believes she will be with us for very much longer, but finding someone to fill the shoes of not only the Potions Mistress but Head of Slytherin will not be easy." A moment later Aileen added, "none of the other teachers are Slytherin."

Malina raised an eyebrow. "None of the other teachers are Slytherins?"

Aileen shook her head no. "We used to have a Slytherin Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, but he has not been seen in four years."

Edana shivered. She had heard a little about Professor Nyssa from Evan, but only that he had suddenly left and not been seen since. Evan never mentioned anything sinister being involved, but he tended to with hold information he thought was not appropriate for his little sister.

"I need you lot to stand up." Aileen said suddenly, distracting Edana from her thoughts. She brandished a camera Edana had not noticed before.

"I hate having my picture taken." Malina complained.

"Too bad. Its tradition." Aileen said as she arranged the reluctant first years so that they would all be visible in the shot. "Cross, stop hiding behind Zeno. Now smile nicely." Edana heard the unspoken 'or else' in Aileen voice and forced a smile.

Aileen snapped a few pictures and let them go, blinking from the brightness of the flash. The first years returned to their seats and with the prefect gone, the talk turned to the various theories on the missing professor. Many of the first years were from old Slytherin families they had heard the tale from older relatives and friends and were able to enlighten those unfamiliar with the story.

"I heard he was eaten by the Loch Ness Monster on vacation." Dru told them in conspiratorial tones.

"Don't be silly," Malina snorted. "That's an old Muggle myth. Everyone knows its really a kelpie, and a DADA professor ought to know the proper way to deal with one of those."

"I heard it was You-Know-Who!" Kali cut in with a dramatic whisper.

"Everyone thinks that!" Malina rolled her eyes. "Its the obvious explanation."

"My parents run _The Daily Prophet_." Alex told his housemates. "Good reporters always try to find out six things: who, what, where, when, how and why. The who is Professor Nyssa, the what is he did not show up for the next term, that leaves four questions upon which to speculate: where, when, why, and how. If the common assumption, that You-Know-Who was behind it is correct, why? I mean Nyssa was a Slytherin."

"I heard You-Know-Who wanted one of his supporters to get the job." Kali told them. "So his agent could kill Dumbledore and a whole lot of other people. We all know he wants to kill all the Muggle-borns and those he thinks aren't worthy to study here."

"Obviously, it didn't work." Malina drawled, her dark eyes surveying the room. "Not everyone here is pure-blooded. Besides, Wilkes, that just sounds like an updated version of the Chamber of Secrets story with a Death Eater standing in for the monster of Slytherin."

"It didn't work because Nyssa either knew or guessed the plan and cursed the position with his dying breathe." Kali retorted. "He was supposed to know all kinds of obscure hexes. Since then Hogwarts has had three Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers."

"Is that true?"

"Yes." A fifth year prefect who had been half listening in on their conversation said from behind them. His glasses cast shadows across his face, making it all but impossible to tell if he was serious or not. "The part about having three teachers anyway. No one knows if Nyssa actually cursed the position, though I wouldn't put it past him. I had him my first year and he loved the dramatic."

* * *

As the feast began to wind down and conversations slowed, Edana noticed something peculiar: Malina had never once taken a drink. Her goblet of pumpkin juice was untouched.

"Aren't you thirsty?" She asked, curious.

"I never drink...pumpkin juice." Malina pronounced pumpkin juice as though it were an expletive.

Edana tried to think of something to say, but she was not very good around people her own age. She had never really known any other girls and had to rummage around in her mind for something to restart the conversation with. "Do you read comics?"

Malina regarded her carefully. "Yes, Mitchie Miggs."

"Have you read the latest issue?"

"The one where he is chased by a cloaked figure on a broomstick that only he can see? Oh yes!" Malina exclaimed, all attempts at dignity cast aside at the mention of her favorite comic series.

Edana grinned. Maybe this was not going to be as difficult as she feared. "I liked the bit in the cornfield best."

Malina shook her head. "Poor Mitchie. The Obliviators always get to him at the end."

"I liked the one where the Obliviator hid in a trash can and ambushed him with the Memory charm. I wonder what they'll do next month." Edana wondered.

Before Malina could answer there was a great scrapping of chairs as students from the three other houses started to get up.

"First years! Over here!" The prefect with the glasses called them over to him. He counted heads to make sure he had all of them and nodded to himself before speaking.

"I'm Joshua Harker, one of the prefects for Slytherin. Follow me, please."

Harker led them down a flight of stairs and into a maze of passages. Edana gave up trying to remember directions after the third turn and the second secret door. The loopy stone corridors were as tangled as a ball of snarled yarn. Finally Harker led them to another right turn and halted in front of an unremarkable stretch of bare stone wall.

"Sanguis." A hidden door popped open, and Harker ushered the first years inside.

* * *

The Slytherin Common Room was a long room with the low ceiling typical of the Hogwarts dungeons. The Slytherins had never been intended to occupy the dungeons on a permanent basis, but during construction of the castle Salazar Slytherin had grown to like the dampness of the dungeons and told the others not to bother adding a tower for Slytherin House. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw never understood this decision, and after Slytherin left the school they again offered a tower to Slytherin House. Be it out of a sense of tradition, stubbornness, a desire to be different, or simply being disinclined to move, they refused. The offer was never made again.

With no windows, the common room was twilight dark. The main source of light came from greenish glass lamps hanging from the ceiling on polished brass chains. The lamps provided a somewhat murky light, Edana could easily understand why the older students had pushed most of the chairs around the fireplace, even if it made leaving difficult. The fireplace on the wall opposite the entrance was surrounded by an elaborately carved mantle piece that had been added during the fifteenth century. Upon closer inspection the Romanesque columns proved to be carved stone snakes.

The wall to the right of the fireplace was covered with portraits of famous Slytherins and previous graduating classes going back to the start of modern photography. The wall opposite it contained images of the present occupants in order of their year with separate framed pictures of the current Quidditch team and Slytherin prefects. There was also a place for photos of Slytherin Head Boys and Girls. Harker explained that the pictures Aileen had taken during the feast would be added as soon as they were developed.

"The pictures are always taken at the feast." Harker informed the new arrivals. "That way you have something to strive for."

"I don't understand." Braedon said, perplexed as he stared at the Slytherin Picture wall.

Harker grinned like the cat with the canary in its paws. "Wait a few years. You'll change but your picture won't. You have to be a prefect or on the Quidditch team to get another, newer, picture on the wall."

"That's blackmail." Dru whispered.

"We prefer to think of it as an incentive." Harker shrugged, then pointed out the two doors, one located on each side of the fireplace, that concealed the labyrinthine corridors leading to the students dormitories.

"Boys to the left, girls to the right." Harker told them before disappearing down the left hand door. The first years thanked him and found seats in the ring of heavy armchairs farther away from the fireplace. They were sleepy but intent on continuing their conversation until Aileen got up from her high backed chair by the fire to shoo them off to bed.

* * *

The first year girls dormitory was the second door from the end of the corridor. Like the common room it was a lengthy rectangle with a low ceiling and rough walls like gray sandpaper in texture. It had been intended to accommodate up to twenty students, but positioning of the four beds and trunks along with the usual students clutter would soon disguise that it was only one fifth filled.

"Who calls the bed by the window?" Dru quipped. The others laughed and took whatever bed their trunk had been positioned next to.

Edana found Shadow curled up in a ball of gray fur, sleeping on one of the beds. The cat opened his yellow eyes to slits and regarded her without interest. Edana scratched him between his ears and the cat gracefully stretched himself out to his full length.

"Is that your cat?" Dru asked. Edana noticed that a coal colored kitten was settling into her lap.

"Yes, his name is Shadow."

"This is Caliope. I've only had her a week. I hope they'll get along."

"They haven't killed each other yet." Edana noted wryly. "I guess that is a good sign."

Dru laughed and kissed her kitten on the head.

The girls were far more tired than they cared to admit and pulled on the nightclothes and climbed into their beds. As Aileen reminded them, they had classes the next morning.


	5. Stoker & Wormwood

"A Slytherin Black Sheep" **   
Chapter Five: Stoker & Wormwood **

Before her arrival at Hogwarts, Edana had never taken an actual class in anything. Her mother taught her at home, preferring both to keep her last child close to her and to protect her from what other children might say about their family. Like the long dead Lucinda Malfoy Rosier, Lenore Mulciber Rosier found that the rumors of her husband's involvement in the Dark Arts refused to die a natural death.

To Edana's surprise, however, the scholastic adjustment was not as difficult as she had feared. Her mother had instructed her with the knowledge that she would one day attend Hogwarts in mind, and the Hogwarts curriculum had been designed to facilitate both those from magical and Muggle backgrounds.

Easily her best and favorite classes were Charms and Flying. Edana had been on brooms almost as soon she could walk. Charms seemed to come naturally to her, though the only bit of magic she knew from the outset was 'Finite Incantantum', she sopped up new spells like a sponge. The Charms teacher Professor Flitwick was quick to notice her knack and often called upon her to demonstrate new spells.

In Potions, Edana was in the middle of the pack along with Malina. She was by no means as skilled as Kali but not as inept as Alex Amiti. She paired with Malina and between them, they usually worked out what to do, though their efforts seldom garnered points for Slytherin.

On a dreary Thursday while rain lashed against the windows, the class was brewing up a batch of drought potion. It was sprinkled on plants in areas of drought to protect them from the sun and help them survive with less water.

Edana stirred as Malina carefully added three drops of the condensed crocodile tears they had prepared in class the previous week. While the potion simmered for seven minutes, they ground the dried sage root into a fine powder and chopped the cactus.

Their unattended caldron presented a flame to the moth of one of the Gryffindor students, who were always eager to get stirred up into mischief with the Slytherins. Malcolm Edwards was Patrick Rollins friend, and the Muggle-born boy had not forgotten Edana's insult on the train. In the weeks since his arrival, Patrick had been educated in the Wizarding world thanks to his housemates and understood that Muggle-born students were not accepted by all those from old pure-blood families, especially Slytherins.

As Patrick added the ground sage to his potion, Malcolm poked him in the side to get his attention.

"What would happen if I dropped this into Cross and Rosier's caldron?" Malcolm whispered, holding up a full phial of crocodile tears.

"It would start smoking when they added the sage." Patrick replied. Potions was his best subject, perhaps because it was similar to chemistry. He had always excelled in the sciences at his old Muggle school. "But, don't waste the tears. You'll need them for the Truth potion we'll be brewing next lesson."

Malcolm brushed the last comment aside. He checked to make sure the Slytherins were preoccupied before he dropped the whole phial of crocodile tears into the caldron. Patrick scooted away so that he would be farther from the inevitable explosion.

When Malina added the sage, the potion turned a strange pinkish brown and thick smoke began to spew from the caldron. Professor Wormwood appeared by their side in seconds and dispelled the smoke with a well placed charm before studying the mess. She found the empty phial in the caldron and pulled it up to examine.

"This is not your phial." Wormwood noted, tapping the side of the phial. It was glass. Both Malina and Edana used crystal phial sets since they retained magical properties for longer than glass sets.

"No, Professor." The pair chorused.

"Whose is this?" Wormwood demanded. No one spoke. "Very well then. Each of you prepared two phials of crocodile tears. Whoever is missing a phial must be our culprit, and since our culprit was cowardly enough not to come forward immediately, the penalty will have gathered interest."

Edana and Malina exchanged grins. They both knew that the person who sabotaged their potion was a Gryffindor, and being called a coward was about the worst insult in their book.

Professor Wormwood walked up and down the aisle, her shoes beating against the stone floor like an executioner's drum, as she carefully checked every student's phials until she came to Malcolm Edwards. He showed her two phials, but she snatched up the second and held it up to the light, smirking.

"Observe class. In a glass phial crocodile tears distort light, making it impossible to see clearly through the phial. Yet Mr. Edwards phial is as clear as if the phial were filled with water. Detention, Edwards, and twenty points from Gryffindor."

The Slytherins were delighted. Twenty points cost Gryffindor their lead.

* * *

Defense Against the Dark Arts had fallen out of favor with Slytherin students ever since Professor Stoker took up the position the previous year. It was hoped by the governors that since he had taught the class briefly before Nyssa, he might elude the curse. At least it was hoped by the three quarters of the students who did not have green and silver stripes on their ties.

Stoker was a grizzled man who appeared to have been carved out of old driftwood. His strange yellowish eyes seemed to narrow whenever a Slytherin crossed his path. There was nothing overt about his demeanor to suggest that he disliked Slytherins, but he put out many subtle clues that when tallied together produced the truth. He always took just a few more points off a Slytherin, he hesitated to impart certain knowledge, he did not regale them with stories of his time as an Auror and kindly offer assistance to troubled Slytherins.

Most Slytherins seemed to take Stoker in stride since they had learned to cope with him the year before, but Edana struggled with the class. To her great disappointment she had no skill whatsoever with curses. When she did manage one it was weak and easily shrugged off. To make matters worse, Stoker appeared pleased by this.

"At least there is one we won't have to worry about." Stoker muttered under his breathe as he watched Edana struggle with a simple leg-locker curse. She ducked her head to hide her flaming cheeks.

"Don't mind that git," Malina instructed her after class. "He won't last much longer."

"How can you be certain?" Edana asked.

Malina shrugged. "The position is cursed, isn't it?"

Edana did not share her housemate's confidence. Though Stoker was by far the worst, all the professors save their own head of house seemed at least a little wary of Slytherins. The other students shared in this attitude and treated the Slytherins as one might treat an animal suspected of carrying rabies. The Prefects cautioned them not to complain or even act as though they noticed this. They had seen too many fights and expulsions over this issue.

The first years were thoroughly warned: "They are just trying to provoke you. They're jealous."

It was good advice, but hard to remember when the Ravenclaw student sitting next to you in Herbology class would scoot so far away they were nearly in the aisle. Harder to hold their heads high when Hufflepuffs said unkind things in loud voices with only a token amount of points taken off them. Had a Slytherin said the very same thing, a detention would also have been dished out to them.

Most difficult of all to deal with were the Gryffindors. They shared Potions and Flying with Slytherins. Malina broke her ankle when Gryffindor Elisabeth Kirkley purposefully winged her, causing her to fall off her broom. Kirkley lost thirty points and spent an evening scrubbing out Professor Wormwood's caldrons, but only because Madam Hootch had seen her do it.

"They are bastards." Malina moaned. Despite the best of magical healing, Malina complained her ankle bothered her at the end of the day. She flopped onto her bed, pulled off her shoes and socks, and proceeded to rub her ankle. Even since the incident Malina refused to go higher than five feet off the ground, and whenever Gryffindors were in the area, Dru and Edana had taken to acting as aerial bodyguards.

"They hate us." Dru said bitterly. "They think we are all Death Eaters in training and are personally responsible for what is going on. Haven't you noticed that they get nastier when the _Daily Prophet _reports a murder?"

"I noticed." Malina spat. "The day before she attacked me, Kirkley got word her uncle was found wandering in the Muggle part of London, screaming whenever anyone got within ten feet of him. He's since been committed to St. Mungo's."

Kali shuddered. "My cousin was found like that. He killed himself before they could get him to St. Mungo's."

Dru shook her head. "They hate us because every time they arrest a Death Eater who was in Slytherin, the _Prophet_ makes certain to note that. When they got Mulciber there was not a word about his being a Ravenclaw alum."

"We are not all Death Eaters. It is no reason to attack other students." Kali said, the others agreed but could do nothing to rectify the situation. Slytherin comprised slightly less than one quarter of the student population and they had only one real ally among the teachers and staff.

Malina had her own explanation. "Its in their blood. The other houses have lower standards with regard to purity of blood. They allow Mudbloods and the like."

Edana nodded, recognizing from her tone the start of one of Malina's rants. When she ranted it was best to just nod and keep quiet until she ran out of steam.

Apparently, Dru had not yet learned that particular lesson. "There is nothing wrong with a little Muggle blood." She retorted defensively.

"You are just saying that because of your Mudblood mother." Malina snapped, sliding off the bed, then wincing as she came down too hard on her bad ankle.

Dru stormed out of the room. She slammed the door so hard a second year came to check on them to see if they were all right.

Edana sought out Dru and found her staring into the fire in the Common Room, wiping her eyes with the sleeve of her robes.

"Are you all right?" Edana asked, not sure what to say. Comforting people was not something she was very good at.

"Yes," Dru sniffled, making more of an effort to stop crying. "It's just, well, there are not many known half-bloods in Slytherin. We tend to stand out like dragons amid the sheep."

"I noticed."

"Malina is one of those purity of blood fanatics. She does not believe she should have to associate with anyone who can't prove that they have no Muggle ancestors before 1750. My grandparents on my Mum's side are Muggles. I won't apologize for that."

Edana did not know how to respond. She had been raised to believe in the superiority of pure magical blood, but Dru was as good a witch as she was and certainly her better in Defense Against the Dark Arts. Edana shook her head to dispel her confusion.

"Malina says a lot of things. Most of them are rubbish." Edana declared. "I doubt she bothers to consider her words before speaking the, she just repeats what the older kids tell her."

Dru smiled a little but her blue eyes were still red rimmed. "Thanks."

* * *

It was the end of Dru and Malina's friendship. By the time November arrived, Dru and Malina's relationship had improved only in that they no longer fought. The Prefects, other Slytherins and Professors had to drag them apart the first few days. Then they made the mistake of fighting around Stoker and lost twenty points. Malcolm Edwards had been thrilled and made loud comments about wanting to thank Dru and Malina for correcting the point deficit.

After that, Dru and Malina settled for pretending the other did not exist when they were forced to be in the same room. Kali and Edana were thoroughly sick of the two girls attitudes toward each other by then and found the tense silences to be a welcome relief from arguements. Now Malina made occaissonal snide comments about Dru, while Dru made disparaging remarks about Malina. Neither one was able to assert dominance over the other and the situation quickly became an impasse since none of the other students would take a side.

On the second of November, the temperature plummeted thirty degrees overnight. Even the dormitories seemed like ice boxes. Edana put on her black wool jumper under her school uniform and fished about in her trunk for a second pair of socks. The two she came up with did not exactly match, but were both black so she put them on her feet. In spite of the additional layer of clothing, Edana's feet were so cold in Stoker's class she had the feeling they would snap off at the ankles like twigs when she finally got up. At least in Potions she could huddle close to the fire under her caldron for warmth.

"My ears are cold!" Kali complained through chattering teeth, using her hands to cover her ears in after Professor Stoker told her off for wearing earmuffs in class.

"Just ten more minutes," Dru whispered after glancing to the front of the room to make certain Professor Stoker was still occupied writing the various methods used to deal with pogrebins on the blackboard. Slytherin was already down eight points after Braedon Zeno knocked his books to the floor and she did not wish to be the one responsible for losing so much as a single point.

Kali smiled a little, her lips quivering as she tried to still her chattering teeth.

Just then someone rapped sharply on the door.

Professor Stoker did not like to be interrupted. He scowled before barking "Enter."

The door slid open to reveal a haggard Professor Wormwood in a thick black cloak clutching two rolls of parchment tied with official Ministry seals. She thrust one of the parchments at Stoker, who unrolled it and scanned its contents quickly before wordlessly handing it back to Wormwood.

Stoker swiveled about to face the class, his expression unreadable and as frozen as Edana's feet felt. "Miss Rosier, gather your books, and go with Professor Wormwood. You are excused from the rest of your classes today."

Edana shoved her things into her book bag, trying to ignore the questioning eyes on her and the peculiar feeling that her blood had just been replaced by ice water. She followed Professor Wormwood out the door and into the hall. Wormwood stared at her for a long moment before composing herself.

"There is no easy way to say this: your brother - Evan - is dead."


	6. Upside Down

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
**Chapter Six: Upside Down**

"There is no easy way to say this: your brother - Evan - is dead." 

Professor Wormwood's voice was matter-of-fact, but something about the forced calm in her demeanor betrayed the fact that she had delivered this sort of news before. Hadn't she been the one to tell Evan about their father's death? Edana could not recall, Evan did not care to discuss that particular memory.

Edana had expected bad news from the moment Wormwood told her to gather her books. Everyone knew what it meant to be pulled out of class by your Head of House, but she had never really thought Evan would die. If anyone would die it would be her mother.

"Dead?" Edana sputtered, feeling as though she had somehow been pulled out of her life and plopped down into the middle of a book or wireless play. She could not imagine Evan dead. He had just started his career at the Ministry. "How?"

The Professor's look was somehow both evaluating and pitying, which made Edana want to shake the woman. She wanted this all to be some sick joke or terrible mistake because even that was better than Evan really being dead. She had pity enough from strangers who learned she was fatherless, but only contempt from her neighbors who would not allow their children to associate with her because the rumors about her father being involved in the Dark Arts refused to die a natural death. When she was eight she played a few times with an older boy from further up the lane until his mother saw and ordered him home. The next time she saw him, he pretended he did not hear her.

"There some Ministry officials waiting in my office who would speak with you. I have contacted your mother. You will go directly home afterwards." Wormwood said. Edana heard her as though the Professor had been speaking from a distance rather than a few feet away.

As she followed Professor Wormwood to her office, Edana realized that she had not answered her question, but now there were too many other questions buzzing about in her mind and she did not know which one to give voice to first. Before she could force her jaw to open and utter a word, Wormwood was opening the door and pushing her inside. It was the first time she had ever been inside Professor Wormwood's office and could not help looking around. It was a sparsely furnished room with a desk, two chairs, and full bookcases. All the books on potions and were in order by author's last name. One of the chairs was occupied by a man in severe black robes of the more fitted cut that had not been fashionable for over a decade. A tall woman in identical garb leaned against one bookcase. It took Edana a moment to recognize the significant of the gold eagle and oak leaf pins on their chests.

Aurors.

Edana had a vague memory of seeing Aurors before. When she had been very young, one came to the house. Edana could not hear exactly what was said, but her mother screamed at the man to leave before she hexed him.

"Miss Rosier, these are Ms. Tonarin and Mr. Longbottom of the Aurors. They are here to ask you a few questions." Professor Wormwood said crisply. Edana noticed the warning look she shot the two Aurors as well as the fact that Wormwood had her hand on her wand. Despite her advanced age, the Professor was reputed to be a fast draw. Edana felt strangely reassured.

"Aurors?" Edana suddenly realized that she was repeating her head of house.

Professor Wormwood looked hard at Longbottom for a moment, but his focus was on Edana and he did not see her look. "She has not been told?" He asked Wormwood a minute later.

"She knows her brother is dead, but I have not informed her of the circumstances. I was ordered to bring her straightaway, but I thought she ought to be told in private. I will not throw a student of mine completely to the wolves." Wormwood snapped.

Longbottom nodded. Edana thought he appeared just the tiniest bit recalcitrant, but when he addressed her, his face was as unreadable as blank parchment. "Were you aware that your brother was a Death Eater?"

Edana was a while in absorbing what she had just been told. As it percolated through the veil of shock, rage flared up inside her. "They said the same thing about my father, murdered him because of it, but he turned out to be completely innocent."

"I remember your father. He was a good man." Wormwood said softly.

"History is not repeating itself Miss Rosier." Longbottom said sharply. "Your brother was caught red handed wearing the robes and mask of a Death Eater."

Edana shook her head. She did not want to believe it could be true, and yet in made a kind of sense. Evan had been very secretive of late...but there were also more reasonable explanations. He was busy trying to establish himself at the Ministry. Then she remembered something that had seemed strange at the time, a request of a powerful amulet, but she had dismissed her questions without giving breathe to them. He was her brother, after all.

Edana glanced at her teacher, she would not have thought it possible, but Wormwood looked older. She sank into the chair behind the desk, gripping the sides as though it were a throne, and seeing Edana looking at her, gestured for the girl to take the seat in front of the desk next to Mr. Longbottom.

"Miss Rosier?" This time it was the female Auror - Tonarin - who prompted her. "If you know anything..."

"I really don't know...," Edana began. She was about to say 'anything' but the word crumbled before reaching her lips as a memory flashed before her eyes.

Longbottom spoke again. "Miss Rosier? If you know something, anything at all, of your brother's activities you are bound by the law to tell us."

Edana still could not speak.

"The girl is in shock." Wormwood began, but Longbottom whipped something out of his robes and handed it to the Professor.

"We need to know what she knows, even if it turns out to be insignificant. I want to take her to the Ministry for questioning."

Professor Wormwood did not like this at all. "She's a child, Frank."

"She is also a witness."

"You need written consent from her legal guardian to question her unless she is a suspect." Wormwood retorted.

The Aurors smiled. Edana did not like their look. "Her mother is being investigated as a suspect, therefore Miss Rosier is a ward of the Ministry. Read the paperwork."

Professor Wormwood snatched up the paper and read it. "You had her declared a ward of the Ministry before coming here."

"You were the one who taught me to cover all my bases." Longbottom replied. "Good day, Grandmother."

* * *

After flooing to the Ministry from Professor Wormwood's office, the Aurors took Edana through a maze of corridors until arriving at a small room. It was windowless and bare of any furnishings but a table and a few chairs. Another Auror set up a quill and parchment with a dictum spell and they made her drink a glass of clear liquid that was too bitter to be anything other than a potion. Edana supposed it was a truth potion, she had yet to study the affects of truth potions so she could not be certain. It made the room became very blurred and Edana felt as though she were both falling and flying.

A voice asked: "When did you last see your brother?"

Edana remembered seeing Evan before going to King's Cross. She guessed she must have spoken aloud because she heard the faint scratching of the quill and the voice asked another question. The sounds echoed in such strange ways.

"Did your brother do anything unusual recently?"

Edana recalled that Evan had come home unexpectedly before she left for Hogwarts. He did not stay long. Another few questions prompted her to describe the episode in greater detail.

_Edana was standing in the kitchen with her mother when Evan arrived. He did not knock as he usually did, but walked into the house to ferret out his family._

_"I thought you had to work today." Mrs. Rosier chided Evan as her son came up to her and kissed her on the cheek._

_"I wanted to see my family." Evan said simply. "After all, Edana will be going to Hogwarts next week and I won't be able to visit with her as often."_

_"I'm glad you came by."_

_"I'm sorry if I interrupted anything." Evan apologized._

_Mrs. Rosier brushed off any notion that he had interrupted her._

_"I have a commission for you." Evan told his mother as he pulled a silk swathed bundle from his robes. Mrs. Rosier made no move to examine it until Evan pulled back the ivory silk to reveal a flawless green sapphire that was easily the size of his palm._

_"What kind of commission?" Mrs. Rosier asked, examining the stone carefully, but still refusing to touch it._

_"The owner wants a Mirror of Truth."_

_Edana gasped. A Mirror of Truth was a very powerful amulet that allowed the owner to see who their true enemies and allies were. It was the most difficult and expensive type of amulet her mother could create and it took nearly a year of careful enchantment to complete._

_"Does the client know the price?" Mrs. Rosier demanded. "It is not up for negotiation."_

_In answer, Evan removed a moke skin money bag from his inside cloak pocket and spilled the contents on the kitchen table. Edana had never seen so many galleons. "The down payment."_

_Mrs. Rosier picked up one coin to examine it. When she was satisfied that it was real she said, "is he aware of the time it will take? I could not possibly have it finished before next May. With the current climate will likely be much longer. Not all the potions ingredients I will need are readily available these days."_

_"He's aware. He does not want this amulet known to the Ministry and is willing to wait however long you need."_

_"I assume he'll want it attuned to him personally for the best results. I'll need blood, in a crystal vial. A new one. Lingering bits of potions in a used vial could contaminate the blood. I'll also need at least three strands of hair from the client, and one strand each from a known enemy and a known ally. He must be certain of the ally or the amulet will be weak."_

_Evan nodded and summoned a quill and parchment. He maneuvered himself so that his sister could not see what he was writing. "May I borrow Aeneas? Cassandra is out with a delivery."_

_Mrs. Rosier gave him permission to use the family owl and Evan disappeared for a few minutes to go to the owl shed outside and send the letter off._

Edana woke up on a cot in the Ministry infirmary, feeling nauseas and as though she had slept for decades. She remembered wondering who would purchase the amulet and why the need for secrecy. She had a sinking feeling that the field of possible clients had just been whittled down quite a great deal.

* * *

Mrs. Rosier owled her brother-in-law Brian to come and collect Edana. As a squib the Ministry was certain he was not a Death Eater, and since they were finished questioning Edana, they allowed him to take her home. Mrs. Rosier joined them a few days later. She had neither been officially charged nor exonerated, and prowled about the house peering through the curtains to try and spot the Auror spys watching the house.

Mrs. Rosier was especially infuriated that she could no longer withdraw funds from her Gringotts vault without having to account for every knut. Evan's assets were frozen, but the Ministry did not confiscate the money from the amulet, though they did take the blood and hair and issue a strict warning to the Rosier family not to take commissions without their permission.

"Why didn't they take the amulet?" Edana wondered. From the slight variation in placement of items throughout the house, it was obvious the Aurors had searched the place while the Rosiers were held at the Ministry.

"They want to see if anyone comes for it." Uncle Brian answered from his position on the couch. "That is why the house is being watched."

"Why bother to search the house, then?"

"In addition to the psychological effect? They were hoping to uncover Dark Arts items, spare wands and the like. Death Eaters are rumored to keep multiple wands to use in their activities. The theory is that if they are caught, the Aurors will not be able to catalog every spell they have performed." Brian said. "They think Evan may have kept one of his wands here."

"They think my mother is a Death Eater." Edana hissed.

"That to." Brian conceded.

* * *

Evan was buried a week after his death. It was perfect funeral weather. The day was crisp without being cold, the sky was leaden but no rain fell on the handful of mourners, witnesses, and official Ministry observers.

Edana had always read that dead people appeared as though they were only sleeping, and until today nothing had dispelled that particular myth. Her father's funeral was hazy in her memory, but she did recall Evan keeping her away from the room where her father's body lay. Now she wondered if her father and brother had looked as much alike in death as they had in life.

Lying in his glossy black coffin, polished so bright Edana could see her own reaction, Evan was too still to foster an illusion of sleep. His chest did not rise and fall with each breathe, his pallor was too pale and waxen, and his face lacked the younger quality it always obtained as he dreamed.

Edana knew intellectually that the purpose of a viewing was to allow the friends and relatives of the deceased to say a few last words and to help them confront the reality of the death, but she instead found it a disturbing custom. Why would she want to say anything to the lifeless shell in front of her. Evan was gone, but now whenever she tried to imagine his face she would have to veer around this razor edged memory.

She backed away and sunk into a chair next to Uncle Brian. It suddenly occurred to her that he looked a great deal like Evan might have looked in his mid-forties. They had the same dark red hair and square jaw. For the somber occasion he had even found a set of black dress robes, which heightened his resemblance to his deceased relations and struck Edana as peculiar as she had only ever seen him in Muggle attire. She wondered if he had worn the same robes to her father's funeral.

As if sensing his niece's scrutiny, Brian turned to look at her and the resemblance lessoned. His eyes were sky blue instead of pewter gray and his hair showed silver threads. Neither Evan nor Augustus Rosier had lived long enough to earn gray hair as wizards aged slower thanks to the magic coursing through their veins.

The tiny family aside, there were not many mourners. Edana cynically realized that Evan's friends were afraid to come to the funeral of a known Death Eater. Only his three remaining family members, a few family friends present to offer the support of their presence, a reporter from the _Daily Prophet_, a handful of Evan's supported victims or their families, and three unfamiliar Aurors were present. The Aurors wore stony masks as they watched the proceedings, but Edana tried not to look too much in their direction. Ever since her questioning, she found the sight of Aurors made her queasy, like the aftereffects of the potion she had been fed. The survivors trooped up to the casket glaring at the Rosiers and departed after hissing something at Evan with expressions of relief.

An official made a few remarks. Edana noted that the usual summary of the deceased had been omitted and she did not know whether to be angry or relieved. How would they describe Evan? Beloved, brother and son, Death Eater?

The Death Eater part was the hardest to comprehend. Having grown up without a father Edana learned the repercussions of death upon a family at an early age. She heard other people discuss their fathers and wondered what she had missed. How could Evan, knowing the pain of that loss, inflict it upon others?


	7. Slytherin Chaser

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
**Chapter Seven: Slytherin Chaser**

In the brief interval between when Professor Wormwood pulled her out of Stoker's class and Edana's return a few days later, something had changed among the Slytherin first years. Dru treated her like Malina, Kali followed suit, and Malina ignored her after being railed at about Death Eaters when she tried to commiserate with her housemate and try to suggest Evan might be a martyr. Edana attempted to apologize a few days later for her outburst, to explain that she did not mean what she said, that she had been keeping her emotions under lock and key and they tumbled out because she overwhelmed her capacity to control them. Malina left the room every time she tried to speak to her. After the first few tries, Edana gave up completely.

Edana slowly began to realize that being the sister of a Death Eater put her in a rather precarious social position. Never having been exposed to group dynamics outside of the ones present in her own small family before her arrival at Hogwarts, Edana had entirely overlooked the subtle but definite schism of Slytherin House. Now that she was forced to pay attention to such things she noticed the divide between those who supported the Dark Lord and those who hated him. Those who did not like the Death Eaters despised her and no matter what she said in her own defense, believed that she either aided or supported them. The sympathizers did not like her because she was not an avid supporter herself and because she refused to think of her brother as a fallen martyr to the cause.

What little comfort and solace Edana found at school was in her studies and in flying. If her roommates wanted to ignore her, she would ignore them in return. It was with some satisfaction that she watched Dru and Kali's Charms marks plummet after they stopped studying with her. Malina received detention in flying for her refusal to get off the ground no that she no longer had aerial bodyguards. As one year faded into another, her ostracism became status quo. Only later did Edana realize that it most likely would have been a temporary situation had she not encouraged it until it was an unshakeable routine.

Her first summer home from Hogwarts found her spending far more time with the family house elves, Squeaky and Tuffy, than with her mother. Lenore Rosier had taken a position with an antiquities firm to pay for Evan's funeral and fill the financial void his death had left. All of Evan's assets had been frozen or had been placed in a trust fund for Edana that not could not be accessed until after she graduated for Hogwarts.

The subject of Evan was now forbidden in the Rosier household. Edana knew that the Aurors had the house under constant surveillance, though what they expected to see Edana never understood. The Aurors knew the Rosiers were aware of their presence. In Edana's books, the characters always tried to conceal surveillance attempts so the subjects would feel free to carry out illegal activities. She concluded the constant observation was more harassment than investigation and resolved to pay it no heed, though the idea rankled when she allowed herself to think about it. 

To pass the long hours, Edana kept busy with a strict regime of exercise, Quidditch practices, and study. As a second year she would be eligible to try out for her house Quidditch team, and she was determined to become a Chaser for Slytherin. Edana found that she welcomed the physical exhaustion, it kept her thoughts from straying toward certain topics. Additionally, with her mother preoccupied with work and Evan in his grave, she had little else to do. The House Elves did the majority of the chores, and aside from occasional trips to Diagon Alley on errands, she had little responsibilities.

Edana had the house elves erect a makeshift goal post in the back of the house. She had Tuffy throw her the Quaffle so she could improve her catching as she tended to fumble the ball a bit when she first caught it. In a real match an opposing Chaser could easily snatch the Quaffle away from her while she tried to steady it. She was getting better. Her obvious fumbles had turned after hours of work into slight hiccups.

Tuffy threw the Quaffle at her. The House Elf had good aim and she caught and steadied it easily.

"Tuffy, this time throw the Quaffle near me rather than directly at me." Edana instructed. She could not assume that her teammates would have Tuffy's accuracy. Also, Tuffy was throwing the Quaffle from a stationary position while Chasers moved about the pitch on brooms.

Tuffy complied and Edana was forced to dive to catch the Quaffle. If she had not been using a Pennifold Quaffle she would have had to fish it out of the Holly bushes. As she corrected her position she caught sight of something flashing across the road from the house. Probably the sun reflecting off one of the Auror's cameras or watches, Edana thought as she chewed her lip in vexation. Couldn't they go bother another Death Eater's family, the kind that actually participated in crimes?

Aside from the irritation of being watched, the summer passed quietly. Before Edana knew it her mother was dropping her off at King's Cross station. Edana had to call after Mrs. Rosier to enchant her bulky, black trunk so it would go through the barrier as she was not officially permitted to perform magic until she was actually on the Hogwarts Express. It was unlikely she would be reprimanded for enchanting her trunk as so many other students did, but Edana had no desire to invite trouble from the Ministry when she knew their were Aurors shadowing her family itching to catch them in the slightest infraction of the law. She managed to pull her trunk onto the train without assistance from any other student and passed the trip reading a biography on her favorite Quidditch player of all time, the famous Pride's Chaser Catriona McCormick, and trying to tune out a debate by a group of Hufflepuff Sixth years over who was the most attractive boy in their house.

Her second year at Hogwarts began with a jarring note when she glanced at the staff table. Wormwood was gone and in her chair was a wizard that Edana thought familiar, though she could not place him in her memory until Professor Dumbledore formally introduced him to the school.

"Finally, Professor Wormwood has resigned from her position as Potion's Mistress and Head of Slytherin." Dumbledore began in a bland voice. His announcement generated much concern among the Slytherins. Wormwood was the only Slytherin on the faculty and often their sole advocate. "However, the position of both Head of Slytherin and Master of Potions has been filled by another Hogwarts alumni, Professor Severus Snape."

The new professor came as a surprise since some of the older students still remembered him from his time as a student at Hogwarts. Edana remembered Severus Snape from the numerous times he had come home with Evan during the holidays. Snape had always carried himself with the air of older than his years, but when she saw him at the Welcoming Feast, she was shocked by his appearance. He seemed more like an man in his thirties than twenty-two. No wonder she had failed to recognize him on sight.

Within a week, three quarters of the school hated him. According to rumors Edana overheard during a pretense of study in the common room, Wormwood tendered her resignation only days before the start of term. There had been a scramble to replace Wormwood as whoever was hired would have to be a Slytherin, which made the pool of candidates very small indeed. Speedy hire or not, to Slytherin, Snape was a godsend. In his class the standard subtle discrimination of Slytherins was reversed, he always favored students from his own house and was more than willing to help any Slytherin having difficulties with his subject. Snape had high expectations for his House and made his presence felt far more than Wormwood ever did.

Quidditch trial for Slytherin were held the third week of September and Edana felt herself ready to go out for the team. Hugo Ryan, the Captain of the Slytherin Quidditch team agreed. Slytherin's best Chaser had just graduated, and the remaining two were now seventh years. Edana was the only person trying out for the team who was not on the verge of leaving the school. Ryan did not like her, but he wanted to win. She made the team.

If Edana was happy, Prefect Aileen Travers was not. Over the summer she had learned that a Ravenclaw girl she did not get on with would be Head Girl.

"I wouldn't have minded as much if Melissa got it," Aileen confided to Edana. "But Miranda Prosser..."

"You don't care much for her?" Edana ventured.

Aileen snorted disdainfully. "Prosser and I do not get along. At all. We worked together - once - in Potions. Prosser fouled everything up, but pretended it was all my fault and smirked when I had points taken off me, points that cost us the House Cup for that year. I can't stand liars. No, Edana, I don't like her."

"Did you get her back?" Edana asked.

A cat like smile spread across Aileen's face and her mismatched eyes glittered with satisfaction. "Oh, yes."

Edana tried to find out the specifics, but Aileen refused to divulge what she did. Edana knew she obviously had not killed Prosser, but it must have been good for Aileen to look as pleased as she did with the memory.

"Are you going to do anything to her now for being Head Girl instead of you?" Edana queried.

Aileen toyed with a strand of her long hair. "Yes, but I have yet to decide exactly what. I never rush into such things. I always wait for just the right opportunity so my vengeance won't blow up in my face like an unopened Howler."

* * *

On Halloween, Edana woke up with a strange feeling in her stomach, as though she had swallowed a jarful of live pixies. It was not until after her last class of the day that she realized why she felt so awful.

Gryffindor Malcolm Edwards, whose attitude toward Slytherins had not improved in the slightest, called out to her in the hall. "Hey Rosier, tell your brother happy anniversary."

Edana whirled around. She knew that it would be better not to say anything, to just keep walking, but the words tumbled out of her mouth before she could stop them. "What?"

Edwards smirked in a way that reminded her of how Aileen looked when she was thinking of how she got Prosser back. "Don't you remember? Today is the one year anniversary of your dear brother's death."

Edana felt even more sick to her stomach. How could she have forgotten? Then something snapped in her mind, as though some hidden willpower had been poured into her. Edana took a deep breathe, gathered the fragments of her composure and did the Slytherin thing: she haughtily stalked off in her original direction.

"That was cruel." Another Gryffindor told Edwards. Edana recognized the voice as belonging to a red head whose name she could not recall.

"She's one of them, Charlie, she deserves it." Edwards spat bitterly. "Her kind killed my dad. I'll never forget that."

* * *

Edana amazed herself by retaining her composure until she reached her dormitory, where it finally crumbled into dust. She climbed into bed, yanked the curtains closed, pulled the covers around her and buried her face in her pillow to muffle the sound of her crying. Shadow managed to climb onto the bed from his afternoon napping spot atop her trunk and wiggled his way into her arms.

"I think," Edana whispered to her cat. "That you are the only living thing who cares about me in this entire school."

Just then the door to the dormitory opened and closed. Edana heard two sets of footsteps cross the room: Dru and Kali.

"I can't wait for the Halloween feast to start!" Dru gushed. Edana could see her through a gap in the curtains as she preened before the mirror. Her blond hair floated about her like a cloud, though Edana knew it only did that because she used expensive hair potions every morning. Otherwise it frizzed. "Did you see the decorations?"

"Those pumpkins...some of them are bigger than my room at home!" Kali exclaimed.

Edana stroked Shadow, trying to ignore the pain that shot through her every time she saw classmates happily chatting with friends and was reminded that she had no one to talk to outside of class. As Dru and Kali continued to discuss the upcoming feast, Edana's sorrow switched over to rage. She pulled the curtains of her bed open with unaccustomed force, startling her roommates. At the sight of her, their conversation ground to a halt. Dru tried to pretend that she had not seen Edana, but something in the other girl's face stopped her.

Edana smirked at them, feeling better after having spoiled their conversation. She changed her black school robes, even though her old ones were spotless, and made a show of smoothing out wrinkles in the fabric. Dru and Kali did not know that Edana had master Anti-Wrinkling charms months ago and used them on all her clothes. The two girls gathered their books and headed off for the Common Room as Edana fussed with her hair.


	8. A Friend in Ravenclaw

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
** Chapter Eight: A Friend in Ravenclaw **

October 31, 1981 

Edana had hoped the Halloween feast would prove to be a distraction. She hovered at the perimeter of the Great Hall, feeling more spectator than student. She watched Aileen, the Slytherin Keeper, talking to one of the Slytherin beaters about a new type of broom. Dru and Kali chatted about their latest Transfiguration grades at the Slytherin table, before slipping into the hallway. Malina was in the dorm, having left the feast early with a headache, and Edana had no desire to be within thirty feet of her at the moment. Malina was trying in the best of health, but an absolute horror when she had the slightest illness or injury. The injured ankle she received last year courtesy of the Gryffindors meant months of complaints and innuendo that Hogwart's medical staff were not really up to snuff. 

Edana aimlessly wandered the halls until she came to the library. It was far quieter than usual, since most students were either at the feast or in their dorms, and it had chairs she could collapse into. In recent months, it had become her sanctuary. She could bury herself in books and no one bothered her here. 

Edana tried to remember Evan's face and found to her horror that his features had blurred into one another. She located an archive of old news clippings and sorted through them until she came to an article regarding Evan winning the Salazar Award in his seventh year. It featured one of Edana's favorite pictures of him. In the picture Evan was mostly still, sitting outside Hogwarts with his broom against him, smiling and occasionally running his hand nervously through his hair. 

Abruptly she found herself overwhelmed by memories of Evan. She put away the articles and pulled out a book, hoping to lose herself in it, but tonight that proved to be impossible. 

Everything she had experienced in the last year hit her all at once: Evan's death, the horror of realizing what he had been, having to deal with her mother, the ostracism of her housemates, and the complete lack of anyone she could trust to confide in. Her emotions boiled over and to Edana's horror she started to cry, sobbing so hard her shoulders shook. She bit her lip and buried her head in the desk, crying for what seemed an eternity, hoping no one would notice. Her mother had always mocked those who shed tears in public, it was not a very dignified was for a person to behave. 

But someone did notice. 

"Are you all right?" 

Edana raised her head to face an older girl, a fourth or fifth year, with a curtain of pale blond hair and a kind face. Automatically Edana glanced at her tie and felt a stab of fear. Blue and bronze. Ravenclaw colors. The girl had seen her green and silver striped tie now and was certain to make her feel worse, maybe she would tell her friends that she caught a Slytherin crying like a baby in the library. Everyone hated Slytherins these days, hated them, feared them, and blamed them for all the murders and tortures. She waited a moment, but no rebuke or harsh words came and Edana decided to chance an answer to the girl's question. Her voice was usually soft as she spoke, almost a whisper. "My brother died a year ago today." 

The Ravenclaw clicked her tongue before she spoke. Edana found the sound strangely reassuring. "Death Eaters killed him?" 

Edana shook her head in the negative. She wished that were the case, it would certainly be easier to deal with. Then she thought of all the murdered families she had read about in the _Daily Prophet_. Would she wish that kind of death on her own brother? Yes, she would Edana decided half an instant later. It was better than knowing what he inflicted upon other people's siblings, friends, children, and parents. She struggled to find the right words to tell the girl that in spite of it all she had loved Evan, that even he had his moments, that he had been a good brother to her. How could she explain how everything good and right he had done made it so hard to accept the terrible acts he committed? For the second time that day, Edana surprised herself. "People act as though I ought to be happy he died. He killed other people and it was his own fault for resisting arrest, but he was my big brother. He always protected me, took time out for me, loved me." 

Edana was again surprised by the Ravenclaw's response. 

"Its not your fault." Four words, but this was the first time she had heard them directed at her. 

Edana smiled weakly. "Thanks, but not everyone thinks like you. They think I'm just like Evan or that even though he's dead they can punish him by hurting me. People curse me in the halls, pretend I'm not there, put things in my caldron..." 

"Don't your house mates do anything to help you?" The Ravenclaw asked. 

Edana laughed. It was not a happy sound even to her own ears. She did not want to go into detail about the situation, so she summed her problem up in a way she thought the older girl would best understand. "No. They either hate me for the same reasons as the rest of the school, or think I'm a sell out and disgrace to my family for not think of Evan as a martyr." 

"If you ever want to talk, just owl me. My name is Illiana Kempton." The Ravenclaw, Illiana, said. 

"Edana Rosier." Then she caught a glimpse of the time. It was much later than she had suspected. "I had better get going. Thank you." 

Illiana favored her with a smile, a real smile, that reached her eyes. "You are welcome." 

* * * 

Hours before students were accustomed to getting up, Edana awoke to the sounds of a gathering in the common room. She could hear Malina mutter about the noise and Kali yank the curtains around her bed aside. Edana slid out of bed and felt around for her slippers and dressing gown. Then she padded off to the common room. 

Professor Snape, still in _his_ dressing gown and slippers but managing to be imposing nevertheless, was reiterating something to the gathering crowd. 

"I assure you it is true," Snape growled. 

"But a _baby_?" A sixth year asked, incredulous. 

"What is the commotion about?" Malina demanded as she came up behind Edana. 

"Voldemort has been defeated." Snape informed her. 

The newcomers were a long moment in absorbing this information. The students had spent the majority of childhood with the fear that Death Eaters would come in the night to kill them or their loved ones. In addition, many Slytherins suspected or feared members of their family might be involved with Voldemort. There was scarcely a Death Eater found who had not been sorted into Slytherin, though rumor ran through the house that deals were cut or the truth hidden about Death Eaters from the other three houses. 

"How?" Edana sputtered. It amazed her that one moment Voldemort was an ever present nightmare and then he was gone. 

Snape looked down his long nose at her and Edana thought that, just for a second, he looked as though he might be on the verge of tears. Then just as suddenly as it came, the moment passed and his expression became unreadable. 

Voldemort went to Godric's Hollow." Snape said. "He murdered James and Lily Potter. When he tried to use the Killing Curse on their one year old son, Harry, the curse rebounded. Do not ask me further questions, I do not know the answers. You can debate the rest amongst yourselves. There will be no classes today." 

With that, he swept from the room leaving bewildered students in his wake. The second years huddled together to discuss the situation. 

Kali turned to Edana. "Do you think it's a hoax?" 

Kali had not spoken to her outside of class in months and it took a few seconds for her to respond. 

"Snape is not the type." Edana finally said. "And only Dumbledore has the authority to cancel classes." 

"I still want to see something more official than Snape." Alex Amiti stated. "My parents would never allow the _Prophet_ to run a story about You-Know-Who being defeated unless it was true." 

"The morning edition of the _Prophet_ won't be owled for hours." Braedan said as he flung himself into a chair by the fire. "And even if it is true, the Dark Lord may be gone but what about his followers?" 

"What if they go crazy?" Dru whispered. 

"You think they already aren't?" Alex asked dryly. 

Malina shot him a withering look. "I think she means what if they go on a rampage." 

Some of the other students voiced similar opinions, others debated the circumstances of Voldemort's eleged defeat, in some corners of the room heated arguments broke out. With little real facts, fear and speculation ran rampant. 

The chatter was silenced by the return of a less than amused Snape. "I could hear you from the headmaster's office. Thirty points." 

"But sir," third year Geoffrey Butler whinged, "that knocked us out of first place." 

Snape glared at him. "Fifty points." 

When Snape departed, the Slytherins turned angrily on Geoffrey. In the struggle between those wanting to vent their fury on Geoffrey and calmer heads not wanting to lose further points, Edana found herself between Geoffrey and a livid seventh year. She felt the impact of his fist, but the next thing she knew was waking up in the hospital wing. 

Madam Pomfrey helped her sit upright, a good thing because the room was spinning anti-clockwise. 

"Miss Travers and Mr. Harker brought you in with Mr. Butler. He won't be up for a while. They claimed not to have seen what happened, but I can tell when a student has been in a fight." The nurse said as she checked on Edana. 

Edana realized that if she told the truth Slytherin might lose more points. She was not the best at spur of the moment lies. The result was a flimsy cover. "I ran into a door." 

The nurse appeared skeptical, but Edana refused to budge from her story and eventually she let the girl be. 

Edana was not the only patient, two other beds had curtains drawn about them. As Pomfrey owled for some of Edana's clothes to be brought (Edana was still wearing her nightgown and dressing gown, though one of her slippers had fallen off) Hagrid came into the ward. 

"I just wanted to see how he is." Hagrid blubbered, focused on the curtained bed farthest from Edana. 

Pomfrey's expression softened. "Poor thing is exhausted. I think he will sleep for a while yet." 

"Could ya let me know when he wakes up?" 

"Of course." 

Just after Hagrid left, Aileen appeared with Edana's clothes. 

"Stay away from doors. I don't like it when students make a habit of getting themselves hurt." Pomfrey instructed her. 

Edana promised she would be careful and gladly left the hospital. 

* * * 

The retalliation the Slytherins feared did not materialize by dinner and they at last allowed themselves to participate in the festivities. The few who secretly supported Voldemort slithered away claiming fatigue, but most joined in the feast that occured that evening. For the most part only those who knew the Potter family appeared subdued. The Professors celebrated as much as the students, though Edana noted that Hagrid, McGonagall and Dumbledore did not appear until after midnight. To her eyes they were tired and distracted. 

A man scurried over to Dumbledore, Edana wondered if this was news of Death Eaters. Somehow the prospect seemed distant and did not penetrate her euphoria. 

Just then, Illiana tugged on her sleeve. Edana allowed her to leader her into an empty classroom. 

"What happened to your eye?" Illiana asked, concerned. 

Edana shrugged. "Slytherin lost a lot of points this morning. Professor Snape was not in a very good mood, but then he is never in a good mood. Anyway he stormed into our Common Room and took off points for the noise. and that had him take off more. After Snape left everyone was really mad at Geoffrey. I was standing near him and got this by accident. Geoffrey is in the hospital wing with two black eyes, a cracked rib and some interesting hex marks. We lost even more points for that." Kali told her after she got back from the hospital that Slytherin had lost twenty points. 

Illiana looked as though she were about to say something when they heard footsteps outside the door accompanied by voices. Edana immediately recognized Snape and McGonagall. 

Snape was speaking. "Sirius Black?" 

"Yes," said McGonagall. "He betrayed them, and now Pettigrew and several Muggles are dead as well." 

"Foolish man," Snape said with contempt. "What did he think he was doing confronting Black like that?" 

"Grief can do strange things to people. Dumbledore tells me that they said Black laughed as they took him away. Of all the people to go over to the other side I never would have considered Sirius Black!" 

"At least we know who was providing information on the Potters to Voldemort now." 

The professors voices became distant as they turned a corner. Edana wished she could question the professors, but knew they would not appreciate knowing they had been overheard. 

"I guess we ought to be getting back to the feast." Edana said, not sure what to say and eager to return to her house table with the news. She still had not forgiven her housemates for their treatment of her, but isolation made her crave social contact and she was willing to overlook their behavior for the time being. 

"I guess so, my offer still stands. If you ever want to talk just owl me." Illiana reminded her. 

"Thanks." 

Edana gave Illiana a brief hug out in the hall before going back to the feast. 

"You will never guess what I just heard." Edana whispered to Alex and Kali as she sat down next to them at the Slytherin table. 

"What?" 

"I overheard Snape and McGongall talking. Sirius Black has been arrested." 

Black's name elicited no response from either of them. 

"Sirius Black was a friend of the Potter's. A Gryffindor." 

"A Gryffindor?" Alex repeated. "Are you certain?" 

Edana hesitated a moment. "He was in the same year as Professor Snape." 

Alex and Kali each knew that Snape had been at Hogwarts with her brother and was the source of her information on Black, but they elected not to mention it. 

"He was apparently a troublemaker," Edana said as she shifted through her memories. She was more familiar with Evan's friends. "Professor Snape loathed him." 

"Wonder how the Gryffindors will take the news that one of their alumni went dark," Alex mused. 

"Not very well." Kali grinned. 

Edana stared at the happy, smiling Gryffindors at their table across the hall. "At least now they'll know what it's like." 


	9. Through the Valley

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
** Chapter Nine: Through the Valley**

Edana never quite understood how she could go from being a social outcast one moment, then another accepted without question or hesitation. She could only speculate that the goodwill and relief brought by Voldemort's defeat had something to do with it. Part of her wanted to rail at the others for their treatment of her, but she feared another rejection. It was hard to be alone all the time in the midst of hundreds of people. 

She soon had more to occupy her thoughts than her changed status amongst her housemates: the first Quidditch match of the season and Edana's first game as a member of the team was rapidly approaching. She practiced hard day and night and became almost obsessive about polishing her broom. Two days before the match she had to fight back tears when she missed a shot in practice. 

Aileen, the team's Keeper, noticed her state and sought her out after practice to reassure her by telling her about own pre-game habits. "Everyone has their little rituals to increase their chances of winning. I always brush the trail of my broom against the center goalpost. It seems innocuous enough, but it flattens the top layer of twigs in the tail." 

Edana, too had read numerous Quidditch biographies. Enough to know what Aileen was really doing. "It makes your broom more aerodynamic." 

"There are a thousand ways to maximize your performance without resorting to cheating. When you play with an edge, it bolsters your confidence. Try it." 

"But isn't cheating Slytherin tradition?" 

"Yes, but not one we should practice with great regularity. Every time a person cheats and gets away with it, their guard is lowered a tad. Sooner or later they get brazen and are caught. I prefer to play smart." Aileen said with a smile. 

"How is your revenge against Prosser going?" Edana asked, curious. 

Aileen's face darkened at the mention of Miranda. Edana immediately regretted asking the question, but not having a time turner handy, there no way to rewind time and unask it. Aileen had hoped to be Head Girl but the position went to a Ravenclaw named Miranda Prosser. For reasons Aileen would never delve into, she and Miranda never got on, and she promised to even the score. 

Aileen cleared her throat and fussed with an imaginary thread on the hem of her robes while she sought an appropriate answer. 

"Haven't really come up with anything suitable yet." Aileen said after a long minute, ceasing to worry the hem of her robes. 

Edana decided to steer the conversation back into safer territory. "Broom tail against goal post, eh. Any advice that would work for a chaser?" 

"Ever read anything about Catriona McCormick?" 

Edana smiled thinking of all the articles and biographies she had ever read about the famous chaser. There was hardly a word written about her that Edana had not come across. "Of course." 

"What did she always do before a game?" Aileen prompted. 

"Rub dirt on her hands before putting her gloves on. Helped her grip the Quaffle better." The younger girl answered. 

"Why not try that?" 

"I will, thank you for the idea." 

"Feel better?" 

"A bit, I don't think I'll feel really better until I've put the Quaffle through the hoop for the first time at the match." 

* * * 

The day of the annual Quidditch match between Slytherin and Gryffindor dawned cold and windy. Edana shivered in her uniform despite the warming charms worked into the emerald green material. She hoped the wind would not adversely affect her performance in the match. As the newest chaser, she knew she would be under the greatest scrutiny. 

"Listen up team," Captain and Beater Hugo Ryan barked as the team assembled. "I just found out that Gryffindor has replaced their Seeker." 

The team felt as though they swallowed ice cubes. The Slytherin Seeker, Joshua Harker, looked ill. He had prepared to play against Gryffindor's usual Seeker Peter Taggert. Introducing a new Seeker who may have seen him fly but whom Harker may have never even glimpsed on a broom made him uneasy. Quidditch teams did not replace players casually, and never just before a match. 

"What happened to Taggert? Who are they playing as Seeker?" Harker asked. 

"Taggert was injured in practice last night. They're using some second year, Charlie Weasley." Ryan replied. "Skinny kid, red hair, freckles. Can't miss him." 

"Weasley?" Edana squeaked. She had heard rumors about how good he was. 

"You know something Rosier?" Ryan demanded. 

Edana swallowed hard. Her nervousness had not dissolved, and having six pairs of anxious eyes fixed on her did not help matters. "I've seen him fly before in class. He's really good. Especially at turns and dives." 

"Well, Weasley may be good on a broom but he still new to the game. Harker has the experience." Ryan announced. 

"I'm new too." Edana muttered under her breath. "Thanks for your reassurance." 

Ryan appeared not to have heard her. "We've trained hard and we'll beat Gryffindor to the snitch and score so often their keeper will get dizzy and fall into the sand pit. Let's go!" 

* * * 

Three quarters of the crowd wore red, waved red flags and screamed themselves hoarse at the appearance of the Gryffindor team. Edana thought the stadium looked like a bizarre Christmas display. She focused on the quarter of the crowd in arrayed varying hues of green. She easily spotted Professor Snape, who wore dark green and appeared unaffected by the cold, and her classmates. Alex, Kali, Braedan, Dru and Malina were huddled around a banner with a silver Slytherin serpent that had a Quaffle in its mouth. 

"And the Slytherins: Halcyon, Moonflower, Preston, Rosier, Ryan, Travers...and Harker!" Emilia Stanton, the Hufflepuff announcer cried as the team crossed the field. Most of the crowd booed and hissed. Edana could just pick out Illiana and was relieved to note that although she wore red, she was not booing or hissing. 

Madam Hootch signaled for the team captains to come forward. 

"I want a fair game from the both of them," she said as she fixed each player with her hawk like eyes. With a final warning glare at the team captains, she watched their brief hand shake. As soon as the two captains jumped apart, Hootch let the balls loose and threw up the Quaffle. The Golden Snitch quickly darted out of site. 

Stanton began her commentary on the match. "And the Quaffle is taken up by Bones of Gryffindor, she passes to teammate Davis...intercepted by Moonflower of Slytherin ...Moonflower racing for the goal posts." 

As the two seekers started circling the field like a pair of predatory birds, Selene Moonflower was speeding toward the Gryfindor Keeper with the Quaffle under her arm and a determined expression on her face when her broom handle was struck by a Bludger. She dropped the Quaffle. 

"Nice play by the Gryffindor beater. Moonflower drops the Quaffle, picked up by Davis of Gryffindor." 

Edana flew toward Davis. She noticed the Gryffindor girl's grip was loose, it was easy to take the Quaffle from her. She swung around toward the Slytherin goal post. 

"Quaffle taken by Chaser Rosier, nice play by Slytherin. A new addition to the Slytherin team, but not the only player facing their first match today. Gryffindor is fielding a brand new Seeker - Charlie Weasley." 

The Gryffindor Keeper moved from a waiting stance into a double eight loop in anticipation of having to fend Edana's attempt to score off. Edana shifted to the left and flew lower as she drew closer. Then as the Keeper moved to match her approach, she changed her course and threw the Quaffle. It sailed through the goal hoop unhindered to the cheers of the Slytherins and the groans of the rest of the school. 

Edana could not contain her relief and delight and punched the air in triumph. She had been terrified that she would not be able to score a goal and Ryan would have her removed from the team. 

The announcer, however, could not conceal her disappointment at this turn in the match. "Rosier gets the Quaffle by Keeper Halsey. Halsey's Nimbus 1000 is no match for Rosier's Cleansweep 5. Slytherin scores." 

The match was far from over. "Slytherin in possession. Halcyon passes to Rosier - nice catch there- and Rosier loops back toward goal. Pass to Moonflower, nice swerve there around the Gryffindor beater. Excellent coordination between the Slytherin chasers. Moonflower SCORES!" 

Edana grinned at the announcer's compliment. Slytherin was twenty points up. She raised her hand above her eyes to shield them from the sun as she picked out Harker, still circling above, seeking the golden snitch. 

This time it was the Gryffindors who gained hold of the Quaffle. Stanton again abandoned her purported neutrality and betrayed her excitement at this development. "Chaser Davis of Gryffindor is hurtling toward the goal posts, will she get past the keeper? Yes! She got past Keeper Travers!" 

This time it was the Slytherin's turn to boo and hiss. Davis smirked. Edana caught a glimpse of Aileen's determined face and almost pitied her. Travers had a long memory and did not forgive a slight or perceived slight easily. She had an uncanny ability to reek revenge either by herself or by proxy. In addition, she also dated one of the Slytherin beaters. Edana was therefore not surprised to see a bludger aimed at Davis. The Gryffindor was almost unseated, but managed to stay on her broom. The Quaffle was taken up by Slytherin Allison Halcyon. 

"Slytherin 20, Gryffindor 10. Still no sign of the Quaffle, Slytherin in possession. Halcyon steaming toward the goal - she drops the Quaffle, nice play by the Gryffindor beaters - Quaffle picked up by Chaser Rosier." 

Edana picked up speed and swung around two Gryffindor chasers. 

"Rosier of Slytherin racing toward the goal posts." 

WHAM!. Edana felt something slam into her, she caught a glimpse of something red as she tried to simultaneously correct her position and retain her grip on the Quaffle. 

It was too late. "Gryffindor has the snitch! Gryffindor wins, 160 to 20!" 

"Bugger." Edana muttered as she set down on the field. A glance at the faces of the rest of the team showed that they shared her depression at the outcome of the match. On the other side of the pitch the Gryffindors were congratulating their new Seeker. Edana hoped they suffocated him. 

In the locker room, the team sat quietly on benches while their captain paced back and forth. 

"Match only lasted seven minutes." Ryan fumed, throwing down his broom. "Seven minutes!" 

Harker stood up, glared at Ryan, and disappeared back into his dormitory. He was not seen again until he had to go to class the following Monday. 

Edana wandered into her dormitory and reached into her bag for a book. The one she pulled out was _Charms and Counter Charms Used by the Ancient Egyptians_ by Professor R. L. Mustee was among he books she had checked out of the library for a History of Magic essay due this week. Even though she had more than enough to write the essay, Edana found herself drawn to ancient Egypt. Hoping to loose herself in the pages of her book she sat on her bed, petted her cat Shadow after he hopped into her lap, and read. 

* * * 

The next day after her Potions lesson, Edana found herself pulled into an alcove by the new Gryffindor Seeker, Charlie Weasley. 

"What do you want?" She hissed, still annoyed at the outcome of her first match and the brief collision. Her side was still sore and having her arm pulled did not help the situation. 

Weasley flushed until his face matched his hair and stared at his shoes. "I wanted to apologize for knocking into you during the match yesterday." 

"Oh." Edana found herself saying. She could not believe who stupid she sounded. Was that really her speaking? It sounded so far away and like someone altogether different. Why did she feel so strange? 

"I need to go," Charlie said, blushing harder. " I just wanted to say I'm sorry." 

"It's all right. All's fair in love and Quidditch." 

Charlie looked up from his shoes and favored her with a lopsided grin. Edana felt her heart skip a beat and her own face redden. He was really quite attractive. Especially when he was blushing. 

"I guess I'll see you around." Charlie stammered. 

It took all of Edana's self control to form a coherent reply. "Yes, of course." 

She watched him turn a corner and disappear from. He was very attractive. 


	10. The Red & the Green

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"   
**Chapter Ten: The Red & the Green**

February, 1984 

Time continued its march relentless forward and before Edana knew it, she was a fourth year. Aileen left Hogwarts and went on to play Keeper for the Wasps before she was sidelined by an injury. She accepted a position at a Quidditch training facility for league players and moonlighted as a photographer for the _Prophet_ during the season. Illiana had been made a prefect the year before, and Malina moved from the reserves to the main team. Slytherin had put together a good side in Edana's opinion, but they could not seem to find a Seeker capable to beating Charlie Weasley to the snitch. 

Edana was divided in her feelings on that matter. On the one hand she was irritated, on the other she was proud of her boyfriend. She was also glad that she and Charlie had agreed to keep their relationship a secret. The last thing was wanted was to be taunted about having a boyfriend like Dru had, after she was caught snogging a Hufflepuff fifth yearin the astronomy tower. If it were widely known she was seeing the Gryffindor Seeker, what Dru went through would seem a pleasant stroll by comparison. Edana also understood Charlie's position. She knew full well how narrow the scope through which most Gryffindor's viewed Slytherins was. 

They usually met in disused classrooms. Edana often wondered why Hogwarts was so vast, it hardly seemed necessary to have so many rooms for the number of subjects offered. _Hogwarts: A History_ provided an answer in a passage Edana had read numerous times but hardly paid much attention to. In times past, Muggle-born students were sent to Hogwarts two years early to be taught to read as the majority of the Muggle population were illiterate. There were also a greater number of courses offered before the seventeenth century when three disciplines were combined into the umbrella subject of Charms. 

Three weeks before Valentine's Day, Edana and Charlie met in one of their favorite rooms after dinner. 

"Hard to believe Fred and George will be old enough to start here in a few years." Charlie told her shaking his head, after showing her a letter from home. 

"They'll terrorize the school. When will they start?" Edana had only met one of Charlie's brothers, Bill, the others she could not match names with ages. Bill was a prefect and considered a candidate for Head Boy next year. Bill was among the few who knew about the couple. The only others in the know were Illiana, Sabrina, and Dru. 

"Six years. Percy will start in four." 

"You'll be gone by the time they arrive," Edana reminded him. 

"True," Charlie conceded, then his gaze became distant. "Strange to think about leaving this place, grown rather fond of it. Have you thought about what you'll do after you leave?" 

Edana was startled. "I don't know, haven't really given it much thought." 

"I want to do something with Dragons." Ever since spying a glimpse of a rouge Welsh Green when he was nine, Charlie had been as obsessed by dragons as he was by Gryffindor's chances of winning the cup. When the current team Captain left in June, Charlie was the heir apparent. Edana thought he would make a fine captain, Charlie was not so certain. 

"I thought you might want to play Quidditch for England." 

"No, I feel the same way about league Quidditch that you do. I wouldn't want _Prophet_ reporters following me around!" 

"I used to want to play professionally," Edana reminisced, twisted the fabric of her robe with her hand as she spoke. 

"I know. You told me." 

"It's nice to have a boyfriend who remembers such details." Edana teased. 

Charlie smiled, brushing the tips of his fingers across her lips as he spoke. "I'm riveted every word that leaves your lips." 

"How poetic. Have you considered that as a career?" Edana asked, drawing closer to Charlie. 

"I'm terrible at making things rhythm." 

"Not all poetry has to rhythm." 

The pair kissed, unaware of the shadow that lingered in the doorway for a moment before departing down the hall in the direction of Gryffindor tower with only the wish of a black school cloak to mark the figure's passage. 

* * * 

"A word, Rosier." 

Edana turned to see Malcolm Edwards staring at her. Instantly her expression frosted over. Edwards had never been a friend to any Slytherin and went out of his way to cause trouble. He blamed Slytherin House for the death of a relative during You-Know-Who's time and seemed to have a special loathing for those such as Edana who included the Dark Lord's followers in their family trees. 

"I have nothing to say to you." She said and started to turn back around to continue in her original direction. Edana disliked standing in the middle of hallways, too easy to be bowled over by traffic from both directions. 

"Not even about your boyfriend?" Malcolm hissed. Edana stopped in her tracks, a cold metal weight dropping down into her stomach. "I saw the two of you snogging last night." 

"What?" 

"You heard me. Perhaps you would care to continue this conversation elsewhere." 

Malcolm mocked. He gestured for Edana to follow him, leading her into the very room where she and Charlie had met the previous evening. 

Edana felt any lingering bits of doubt dissolve. She saw Edwards smirk and itched to remove it from his face, but the Gryffindor boy had his wand in his hand. 

She decided to bypass the preliminaries. "What do you want." 

"Stop seeing Charlie." 

Edana stared at him. 

"You don't deserve him." 

"Charlie doesn't see things that way." 

"You've obviously bewitched him." 

"If I bewitched him, I would have had him throw the match against Slytherin while I was at it." Edana grumbled. 

"Slytherins know no shame." 

Edana raised an eyebrow. One thing she hated was a hypocrite. "If you have something to say aside from admitting what a nosey parker you are…" 

"I heard you're pretty good with charms," Malcolm drawled. 

"I heard you are not." Edana hit back. 

"I want better marks." 

"Don't we all. Try studying." 

"I want you to do my essay for me." 

Edana perched on the edge of a desk and stared at Edwards through hooded eyes. "Blackmail is not a Gryffindor tactic. Why don't you challenge me to a proper wizard's duel in accordance with the ideals of your house." 

Malcolm squirmed a bit, Edana knew how much it must gall him to be identified with anything Slytherin. "You Slytherins are incapable of playing fair. I'm sure every Slytherin has grassed up one of your own at least once. Gryffindor's have honor." 

"Honor. I see." Edana layer the sarcasm as thick as she could. 

"What's the matter Rosier, can't handle the tables turned? Thought you'd be used to blackmail." 

"I'm not." 

"Doesn't matter. Bring the essay here on Friday so I can test it to see if it's the real thing before copying in over." 

With that, Edwards turned and left. 

Edana stared after him. "Swarmy git." 

* * * 

"If I let him blackmail me now, he'll be able to blackmail me forever." Edana fretted to her cat later that evening as she sat in the common room with Shadow, who was in the process of cleaning his paws, on her lap.. "I will not allow that to happen. What I need is something on him." 

The problem was not she had nothing on Malcolm Edwards. Not even the thinnest rumor or innuendo that she could hold over him. 

Edana stared off into space, considering and then rejecting a wide range of ideas. As the grew ever more frustrated, her gaze was drawn to the Slytherin portrait wall were two images of her younger self waved back at her. Both pictures had been taken by Aileen, the oldest of the two at the Welcome Feast, the second on the Quidditch pitch in the spring of her second year. The disarrayed hair she sported in both made her cringe. Now she understood the prefect's cryptic comments the night the first picture was taken. 

Edana had to pick Shadow off her lap to reach the small bookcase wedged into a small alcove of the common room. Its mahogany shelves were charmed to include an impressive array of books. Edana ran her hand along the various titles until she came to a copy of Anton Fatelli's _Ambition & Power_ that would long ago have disintegrated it not for innumerable charms and spellotape. There had been talk of replacing it with a newer copy, but most Slytherins were fond of the book. Its appearance among the other pristine books had drawn them to it, it seemed a crime to leave a conspicuous copy of such an important read for future Slytherins. They did add a second copy. 

_ Ambition & Power_ was considered the quintessential Slytherin book. Edana had read it many times, but never with a specific problem on her mind. She returned to her dormitory and placed her disgruntled cat on her lap. The cat fixed her with an annoyed gaze. Edana scratched him between his ears. 

"Here it is Shadow," Edana whispered, running her fingertips across the text. "The Suggestions for Revenge." 

The cat purred. 

Edana read: "Revenge is best attempted in such a manner as leaves the victim alive. Not only is their suffering increased, but without a body or disappearance, the likelihood of criminal prosecution is greatly diminished. The most cutting vengeance is one that involves a twist to the original insult. Nothing is more damaging than seeing one's own effects used by an enemy." 

"I want to blackmail Malcolm, Shadow. Any idea how?" 

The cat stretched, brushing against Edana'a hand, causing her to flip to the next page. It continued the revenge discussion, but the top of the page was marred by a large stain. 

Just then an idea sprang to mind and Edana fell back on her bed laughing. "I think I'll borrow a few pages from Mr. Edward's book." 

"You seem happy." Dru said, poking her head out of her own bed. 

"I am ." 

Dru grinned. "Seen your boyfriend today?" 

"No, he has practice this evening. Gryffindor is playing Ravenclaw next week. I've been reading putting off doing my reading for Stoker, read Fatelli instead." 

"Good choice," Dru murmured. 

"How is _your_ boyfriend?" Edana asked, shifting the topic of conversation away from herself. Dru's boyfriend was in Hufflepuff, the only house with which Slytherin shared no classes. Edana had always been grateful for that fact as she had made an enemy of Hufflepuff Celinda Green on her first day of school. They saw each other only in passing and seldom acknowledged the other. 

Dru's cheeks grew a little pink, but she did not blush. "He's asked me to visit him this summer. He wants me to meet his parents." 

Edana raised an eyebrow. "Will you go?" 

"Of course, I've always wanted to visit London proper, I've never been to any part of the city except Diagon Alley. My mother dislikes large cities." 

Dru's father was born in America, but moved to Swansea to take put a position at the Muggle university. It was there he met Dru's mother, who was performing a memory charm on a man who had seen a dragon. She asked him to dinner that night. 

Edana watched Dru play with her own cat Caliope. She envied her uncomplicated family life and the openness of her relationship with Payton. She tried to imagine introducing Charlie to her mother, but those imaginings always ended with her mother staring down her nose at Charlie and commenting on how amazing it was that his family was still pure-blooded. 

* * * 

Edana was not able to put her plan into action until Thursday, when the fourth year Slytherins had potions. 

She carefully researched the potions the class was due to prepare to see if what she planned would be feasible. It was. Obtaining the critical ingredient proved to be the greatest challenge and Edana had to resort to filching it from Malina. There was a Hogsmeade weekend coming up and she would be able to replace the purloined item without Malina any the wiser. 

Her plan was simple, lifted from a tale told by Evan about an incident in his fifth year when infamous Gryffindor trouble makers Black and Potter dropped a Zonko FireballÔ in Severus Snape's caldron. Edana knew that the pair's exploits were still remembered and recounted though Gryffindor seemed to skip over Black betraying the Potter's. Gryffindor had difficulty accepting that one of their own had gone dark. 

Edana chose to mirror that stunt for two reasons: one, Edwards had sabotaged a potion of hers as a first year and second because Snape's mind would link it with his own past. He would look to Gryffindor to the guilty party. It bothered Edana to use Snape in this way, but she could see no other means to her end. 

She kept the tiny firecracker in the pocket of her robe, carefully charmed not to betray its presence with a bulge. Snape had sharp eyes and Edana did not want to attract his attention. She waited until Snape was sneering over Charlie's caldron and not able to see either Edwards or Edana. She eased the firework out of her robe, and concealing it with the sleeve of her robe, ignited it and plopped it into her potion while her partner chopped the ginger root. 

Edana stirred the caldron, then turned her back on it to mash her scarab beetles. She forced herself to focus on the task, to ignore the impending explosion behind her so that she would be able to display suitable surprise. 

BOOM! 

Edana did not have to feign shock, the sound was louder than she expected, and she instinctively ducked behind a table with Malina. She understood now why the younger Snape had fallen forward into his caldron when it had been done to him. 

Snape appeared in an instant to inspect the situation. Edana glimpsed the peculiar expression on his face when he recognized the stunt. Had Snape looked at her in that moment he would have had his culprit, but his focus was not on the Slytherin girl crouching behind a table. 

"Who is responsible for this?" Snape asked in a lethally quiet voice. He directed his question to the Gryffindor half of the room. 

No one answered. 

"When I discover the identity of the student who did this, I will see that they are expelled." Snape vowed, his black gaze sweeping the room. Edana managed to keep her composure, thankfully Snape's searching look was not long fixed on her. There was something in his eyes that frightened her. She wondered what he had done during the Dark Times and if Evan would have had a similar look to him had he lived. But if he lived, Evan would have been sent straight away to Azkaban. 

Edana shook herself from that train of thought. What ifs were useless and capable only of driving a person mad. She shoved her books into her bag and hurried from the room with the rest of the class. 

* * * 

Edana kept her appointment with Edwards, but she did not bring any essay for him to copy. The only thing she took to the meeting was her wand. 

"You fancy having your relationship gossiped about the entire school?" Edwards asked, a note of incredulity entering his voice. It was obvious to Edana that he expected her to hand over the essay without incident. 

"You won't tell anyone." Edana responded as she traced a pattern on one of the desks with her index finger. 

"Oh? Who's going to stop me? Memory charm would not work, besides I have my wand." 

Edana smirked. It was the kind of smirk that a Slytherin only uses when they are about to lay out their trump card and watch their opponent squirm. The kind of smirk intelligent individuals would know to be wary of. "You talk and I'll tell Snape that you put that firecracker in my caldron." 

Edwards blanched, his mouth hanging open for a long moment before he remembered to close it. "But I didn't do it!" 

"Who would Snape be more likely to believe?" Edana reminded him. "I've never been responsible for any incidents in potions class before. You have, Professor Wormwood and the entirety of our class can attest to that.. Then consider that Snape is my house head and predisposed to believe a Slytherin over a Gryffindor…" 

"That's blackmail!" Malcolm hissed, outraged. 

Edana was amused. It was perfectly all right in his mind for him to blackmail her, but not all right for her to reverse the situation. "Imagine that," she purred. 

"You can't." 

"I already have. We should return to your attempt to force me to do your charms homework so you won't tell the school about Charlie and me. I think a little change in terms would be in order. Now you keep your mouth shut about us, I don't go to Snape." 

Edwards glared at her. "All right, but if you hurt Charlie...I'll find a way to make you pay. You remember that." 

With that he stormed out of the room. 

"Typical Gryffindor," Edana mused. "Empty promise before departure. _So_ clichéd" 


	11. The Malfoy Connection

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
**Chapter Eleven: The Malfoy Connection**

_ I can't stand to fly   
I'm not that naive   
I'm just out to find   
the better part of me_

-Superman (It's Not Easy) by Five For Fighting 

June 30, 1984

It was just after four in the afternoon when the Hogwarts Express shuddered to a stop in the station. Despite the thick gray clouds overhead, it was an extraordinarily hot day and everyone was glad to leave the sweaty confines to the train. Being within the carriages felt like being inside a shuddering and bouncing oven.

Illiana was waiting for Edana on the platform, her Hogwart's robe and house tie draped over her arm. Unlike Edana who had changed into a blue cotton dress, Illiana simply removed her school sweater, but kept the skirt and blouse on.

"Have a good holiday," Illiana wished the younger girl as she hugged Edana good-bye, her prefect badge still pinned to the robes dug rather painfully into Edana's bare arm. "I expect to receive many letters from you."

"I'll try," Edana promised, extricating herself from Illiana's hug. She liked Illiana, but her badge had sharp edges and Edana was not interested in having her dress torn if the badge caught on it. Repairing charms tended to leave cloth thin in the mended area. "What will you be doing this summer?"

Illiana tucked a strand of her long blond hair behind her ear and assumed what Edana thought of as her studious look. It was a requirement that every Ravenclaw master some variation of this particular look prior to the start of their second year. "I'm interning at the Ministry this summer. Assuming my NEWTS are up to snuff, I'll be able to join after I leave Hogwarts next year. I hope this internship will help me decide what I want to do in the Ministry."

"Don't become an Auror." Edana said without a trace of humor. She had neither forgiven nor forgotten the manner in which the Aurors treated her small family and did not want to see her friend become one of that mass of humorless black robed wizards and witches.

Illiana appeared taken aback for a moment, then laughed to dissolve the tension. She was well aware of Edana's opinion on Aurors. "Don't worry, I'm not about to lurk about in bushes trying to catch Dark Wizards. Would do terrible things to my complexion, and Dark Wizard catching does not mix well with long hair." 

Here Edana had to laugh. Illiana had very long hair, it almost touched her waist when loose. It amazed Edana that she was able to keep it tidy, but then Illiana spent much more sickles on hair potions. "I can imagine." 

"I want to do something intellectually challenging." Illiana leaned in closer, her hair falling about her face like a pale gold curtain, her voice so low Edana had to lean in closer to hear her. "Actually, I'm hoping to join the Department of Mysteries."

Edana's eyebrows shot up. "You'd enjoy the secrecy."

"I do like being in the know." Illiana agreed with a pleased smile. "Have you given any thought about what you want to do when you leave Hogwarts? Its not that far off."

Edana sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "I know. Charlie asked me that same question. I just don't know what I want to do."

"You could do lots of things Edana. You could join the Ministry."

Edana laughed. "The Ministry? No. They would never have me. Pixies will don robes and take advanced Arithmancy first."

"You could still play Quidditch professionally."

"I'm not that talented."

"I've seen you play. You are good."

"Good against Hufflepuff is one thing, good against League chasers - that is something else." 

"Well at least you know what you _don't _want to do." Illiana grinned.

"I suppose it's a start."

Illiana looked into the crowd where her parents were waving her over. "Whatever you do, I'm sure you'll be wonderful at it."

* * *

Edana could not find her mother anywhere around the platform. Mrs. Rosier may have become distant with her daughter after Evan's death, but she thus far always remembered to pick her up from the station at the start of holidays.

"Maybe she's late." Edana told Shadow. The cat meowed from his wicker basket. 

She watched Charlie be engulfed in a hug from his mother. Edana again envied him his numerous, living sibling, and loving parents. She hoped he appreciated them, but doubted he really did. No one really appreciated the people around them until they were gone.

Charlie saw her and blew her a quick kiss before the crowd obscured her view. Edana sighed, it was going to be a long summer without her boyfriend, but maybe they could meet at Diagon Alley.

She had just decided to walk to Diagon Alley and Floo home when she passed through the barrier and found her Uncle Brian was waiting for her in the Muggle station. He wore his work clothes, a dark Muggle suit and tie, and his expression was not one associated with a random visit or pleasant news.

"Uncle Brian." Edana sputtered. "Is everything all right?"

Uncle Brian maneuvered Edana out of the flow of traffic. His voice was soft and meant to break the news to her gently, but every word was an icicle plunged into her lungs.

"Your mother is dead."

"Dead." Edana repeated. Hadn't she been through this before? Edana thought dizzily. That was Evan, a part of her brain shot back, and two years ago.

Uncle Brian interpreted her response as a request for further information. "A client found her in the dinning room this morning."

"What happened, how?"

Uncle Brian shook his head. "Details are scarce now, Edana, it really is too soon to be sure of anything. The Ministry told me it looked as though some Dark Arts supporters broke in - you know as well as I there are some valuable items in that house - and your mother, she must have surprised them."

* * *

Uncle Brian dropped Edana off at home to collect her things while he retrieved her mother's body and began the funeral arrangements. Edana was preoccupied with her own thoughts and neglected to remind her uncle that she needed very little time to pack. Most of her things were already stored in her Hogwarts trunk. Edana was warned not to go into the room where her mother's body was found, but otherwise she had the run of the house.

Once her uncle was gone Edana sank into a chair, grateful to be home, but at the same time feeling as though she had wandered into a dream world. She kept expecting her mother to appear from around corners. It did not seem possible that she was dead, but Edana had lost too many family members to revel in denial for long. Her mind was quick to grasp reality even if her heart was in shock.

The whole thing bothered Edana. Once her initial shock passed, she was able to detach herself from the situation and view the circumstances as though the dead witch was a stranger's mother or a distant relation she did not know. It amazed her that Aurors were not about poking through things. Wasn't anyone worried she would inadvertently move something important? In all the books she ever read when someone died under suspicious circumstances the whole area was warded off and searched.

In the library, Lucinda Rosier smiled down at her descendant from her place on the wall, but Edana could not bring herself to smile back. Lucinda reminded her too much of her own mother - both saw their husbands destroyed by the Ministry on false Dark Arts charges, both had sons named Evan.

Edana bit her lip to keep from crying. Her emotions seemed to see saw between detachment and flood. She forced herself to admire the lace on Lucinda's gown; the way she crossed the two wands - one in each hand - like an Egyptian Pharoah in a tomb painting until the urge to cry passed. When the detachment returned, Edana cynically wondered if her ancestor appeared so regal when her family was being torn apart by the Ministry.

The Ministry. Edana had two family member's deaths to lay at their door, only one was justified. She sometimes wondered if the Ministry were picking up the thread of that previous administration and completing the destruction of the Rosier family that began in Lucinda's time. Her mother had been murdered, but before a day passed the Ministry declared her death the work of dark arts practitioners. It seemed they were not bothering to look much into why she had been killed and the exact identity of her killer. Even if Edana's thoughts were not suspicious of the Ministry by nature, the strangeness of the situation would have raised concern.

She forced herself to consider other suspects. Edana knew her mother was not unsympathetic to Death Eaters, in retrospect she realized her mother was fully aware of Evan's activities. After Evan's death, then the defeat of the Dark Lord, Mrs. Rosier retreated further from society and her own daughter. Was her behavior seen as a sign of madness? An insane person would surely have been seen as a security risk.

Or maybe the explanation was as mundane as the ministry suggested. Her mother stumbled across a robbery in progress. But nothing of value was missing; Edana made a search of the property as soon as she arrived at the house.

Then Edana remembered the amulet her mother had been working on, the commission Evan brought her. The commission that might have come from the Dark Lord himself. Maybe that was what they wanted. Maybe her mother refused to hand it to a stranger.

If so then the robbers were out of luck. Mrs. Rosier placed the amulet in Edana's Gringott's vault after Evan died, along with a few other items that might be confiscated. She knew the Ministry would not dare to confiscate the assets of a minor. They might make things difficult until she was of age, but they could not steal from her. Her record was without blemish and familial connections alone were not enough to merit seizure of property from a minor.

Edana drummed her fingers on a table. Assuming the motive was robbery, why wouldn't her mother give the amulet to Death Eaters. She had access to Edana's vault.

What if the robbers weren't Death Eaters...

The Ministry had already searched the house, years ago. What if new information came forward, information that would tell them where to look.... 

Her uncle Brian told her what they wanted at Evan's funeral. 

__

"They were hoping to uncover Dark Arts items, spare wands and the like. Death Eaters are rumored to keep multiple wands to use in their activities. The theory is that if they are caught, the Aurors will not be able to catalog every spell they have performed. They think Evan may have kept one of his wands here."

The Death Eaters would want to keep Evan's exact activities a mystery, the Aurors wanted a window on the Dark Lord's past activities they could peer through to speculate on his present and future moves. Both groups had motive, method, and opportunity.

And not just anyone could circumvent the spells protecting the house and grounds. 

The Rosier family was ancient, considered by most historians to be the oldest magical family in continuous residence in the British Isles. Edana had never had cause to examine the family archives in detail before, but the surnames the Rosiers had married over the centuries read like a who's who in British wizarding history. The family might have fallen in social and financial standing, but they had never to Edana's knowledge been required to sell heirlooms. Mrs. Rosier often liked to quote her husband that family heirlooms cannot be thought of as having a market value as that leads to their being put on the market.

When any group of people reside in an area for an extended length of time they imprint themselves on that place. This place was Rosier territory, had been since before the founding of Hogwarts. Of course the original Saxon hall (built on the site of a Roman villa) no longer existed, nor did the small castle that followed it (demolished in the reign of one of the Edwards), but the present house still stood, built a with material salvaged from the ruins of the previous castle. That was a great deal of time to create hidden chambers, passages, and other hiding places.

Edana's eyes narrowed. Evan knew more family secrets than she did on account of his age at the time of their father's death. Some he passed on to her, other he did not. The house was not huge, but 13 bedchambers and assorted other rooms left a lot of space to search for something as thin and small as a wand.

* * *

Three hours later an exhausted Edana collapsed on her bed. She tried each and every hiding place she could imagine Evan might use and a few she invented. The only things she found were a handful of knuts and a few dusty toys of the variety that came out of Christmas crackers. The only exception to her search were her mother's bedroom and the room her body had been discovered in. Edana closed her eyes when she closed the door. She did not want to see. 

She went downstairs to make herself some tea, Uncle Brian would not come to retrieve her until five, four hours away, and she did not have much to pack. Most of her things were already in her Hogwarts trunk, though she did add a few sentimental items from around the house.

Just as she was pouring the tea, one of the house elves came scurrying forward.

"Miss Edana! Miss Edana!" 

"What is it Squeaky?" Edana seldom saw the house elf excited. She considered that he might have become unbalanced after her mother's death. House elves became very attached to their human masters.

"You has a visitor, Miss Edana!"

Edana nearly dropped her teacup. Who would visit her _here_? Not any of her friends, they had seen her leave with Uncle Brian. Squeaky would not announce her uncle and was unlikely to call a Ministry official a visitor. Who then?

"A visitor?"

The elf bobbed its head up and down like buoy in the tide. "He's in the front hall, Miss Edana."

Edana straightened her clothes and checked her hair in a mirror. She was the lady of the house now after all.

* * *

The wizard in the entry hall was tall and slender with pale aristocratic features and eyes the exact gray of Edana's own. They might have reminded her of Evan, but Evan never accessed her with the coldness that these eyes did. He was not a handsome man but there was something about him that commanded attention.

"Miss Rosier, I presume." The voice was cultured, accent very upper class and somehow false. His expression trailed his words by a matter of heartbeats, composed to match his speech rather than actual feelings.

Edana did her best to sound mature, but her voice sounded like a little girl to her own ears. She felt very self conscious of her dress, why didn't she take the time to find less juvenile clothing? "I am Edana Rosier. Who are you?" 

The man smiled like a cat, lazy and confident that the mouse would be his dinner that evening. Edana felt a blanket of ice fall around her, it disturbed her all the more to be frightened of someone who was standing in her own home.

The smile grew, like a bow drawn to fire an arrow. "I am Lucius Malfoy."

Edana knew who he was by reputation, but the revelation of his identity only made his presence in her foyer all the more confusing. To her knowledge there was no connection between Lucius Malfoy and her small family. He left Hogwarts before Evan arrived and figured in none of her mother's stories. As her mother conducted most of her amulet business from home, Edana knew most clients by sight and she was certain Lucius Malfoy had never been here before.

"And to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, Mr. Malfoy. My mother's funeral is scheduled for Saturday." She knew it was rude, but Edana felt an unreasoning desire to both obtain answers and get him out of the house. She just wanted Uncle Brian to collect her so she could pull down the facade of control and collapse knowing someone else would deal with the intricacies of arranging the funeral and dealing with any mourners. 

"I was saddened to hear about Lenore's death of course," Mr. Malfoy replied in way that that told her this conversation was not over.

"I'm certain that you were." Edana answered, feeling a sudden unwillingness to talk about her mother and fighting to keep the sarcasm from her voice. _Politeness, politeness_, her mind screamed. Polite words were more likely to produce answers and get rid of him.

"I knew your father quite well,"

This was a surprise, but Edana did not show it. "Really. I was too young when he died to remember him."

"A pity. Pure-blood families are too often targets of Ministry aggression in these times, are they not, Miss Rosier."

"So I have been told." Edana wished he would stop talking about her parents. She was tired of thinking about them, tired of dealing with the emotions that accompanied talk of them.

"You inquired about the purpose of my visit earlier," Lucius said. He removed a roll of parchment from his black silk cloak and handed it to her. She unrolled it, noting the impressive list of signatures and seals at the bottom.

"This is a legal document," Edana said.

"Yes," Lucius confirmed. "A copy of your mother's last will and testament to be precise. She left all of her assets and property to you."

"I'm aware of this."

"You may not be aware that your father's will, to which hers defers in the matter of custody in the event that you are left orphaned, awards your guardianship only to a blood relation of your father's."

Edana already knew this. Her mother despised her remaining family and would not have left a dead owl to them. "My Uncle Brian is coming for me." 

Mr. Malfoy sneered. Something in his demeanor suggested he did this quite a bit. "An unmarried squib with no experience raising children?"

Edana stiffened. "He is still my uncle. My only remaining family." 

"Not exactly. You see, my dear, you and I are cousins." 

"Very distant." Edana said thinking of Lucinda Malfoy Rosier. 

"Your grandmother and mine were sisters." Mr. Malfoy informed her. He handed her a second, slimmer, scroll. It too had the look of a legal document. "I've already been awarded custody of you on the grounds of the unsuitability of your uncle." 

Edana could not find the words with which to reply, which seemed to suit Mr. Malfoy. He directed the house elves to bring Edana's things and led her from the house. 

Chapter Ten Reviewers:

The Face of Evil: Thankfully nothing happened, the delay was because I've exhausted my supply of prewritten material and have been trying to space things out a bit. From here on out, I'm posting them as I finish 'em and it usually takes me 2-3 weeks to complete a chapter. As of now I'm ALMOST done with Chapter 12, which is running a tad longer than I'm used to and has a lot happening in it. I'm hoping to post it next Friday, but Chapter 13 will be up to a month after that as I've got evil final exams coming up.

bluemeanies: I like that phrase too. Expect more deliciously devious behavior from Edana.

Chapter Twelve: We meet young Draco and Mrs. Malfoy, a few explanations are presented, and Edana involves herself in an event mentioned in canon.


	12. In the Spider's Web

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
**Chapter Twelve: In the Spider's Web**

__

May it be an evening star   
Shines down upon you   
May it be when darkness falls   
Your heart will be true 

"May It Be" by Enya 

Malfoy Manor was a polished place in sharp contrast to the worn elegance of her own family home. The furnishings, antique and new, gleaned and were of the highest quality. Constructed in early sixteenth century by Muggles, the house was brick and built in the shape of the letter H. Magically expanded, the Manor was enormous, not as large as Hogwarts, but harder to navigate with no friendly ghosts or suits of armor to provide directions. 

Lucius Malfoy provided a cursory history of the building as he led Edana through the house. "My ancestors did a great favor for the Muggle lords who built the Manor. But the Muggles were not forthcoming with payment. My ancestor Richard Malfoy," here Lucius paused in both speech and step as though a thought just occurred to him. Edana was glad for the halt as she was having a difficult time matching Lucius's ground eating strides. "Our ancestor, I suppose. I do recall reading that a Malfoy witch married a Rosier. Well, Richard sought his payment, but the family's wealth had been confiscated by Henry VII for supporting the wrong side in the War of the Roses. The family fled to the continent leaving only the land and manor behind. Richard was given the property as payment and moved the family here. He began the process of converting the manor from Muggle to Magical residence. We have been here ever since." 

Edana nodded, the house had been magically modified at some point in the centuries since the Malfoy family first occupied it. Richard could not have done it, Edana's Charms studies told her the necessary spells were not invented until the 1836. As it was now, had the manor been located in ancient Greece it might have provided the inspiration for the maze of the Minotaur. It boggled her mind to think that not only did people live here, but that Malfoy Manor was only the _fourth_ largest private home in the Britain Isles. 

The other three must require a compass and detailed map to go from one room to another, Edana thought. Then she realized that she might need a map to locate the exit again. 

Mr. Malfoy shepherded Edana into a formal parlor where an elegant woman waited. He introduced her to Edana as his wife, Narcissa. 

Mrs. Malfoy was a tall, regal and immaculately groomed woman. Her manner reminded Edana vaguely of her mother before Evan's death, though that her mother had never been able to afford such expensive robes and jewelry. The Rosiers did have family jewels, the majority were of another time and gaudy to the modern eye, and Mrs. Rosier's occupation manufacturing and repairing amulets meant various loose gemstones were always kept in her workroom. Several times she told Edana about the stones, how to determine their quality, whether a stone was genuine, and to assess market value. Edana knew the aquamarines around Narcissa's throat to be of the highest caliber, antique as they were of the sea green favored in the past rather than the pale blue preferred by modern collectors. They were worth more than the annual salary of an entire Ministry department. 

"Poor dear," Narcissa said as she enveloped Edana in a hug, which amazed the girl. Mrs. Malfoy did not seem the hugging type. 

Despite his purported concern for the welfare of his orphaned cousin, Mr. Malfoy made his excuses and disappeared into the hallways of the labyrinthine manor without a backward glance. 

"Let me show you your room. I had the servants bring your things in already." Mrs. Malfoy told the girl. She led Edana through yet another maze of hallways and into a spacious bedroom suite that would have swallowed both her dormitory at school and her room at home. The walls were covered with textured dark blue silk, the accents, the drapes, and coverings on the enormous canopy bed were cream. The wide planked wood floors, revealing the room dated to the Muggles as wizard floors never showed scratches, were covered by thick rugs that depicted a scene of Ariadne accepting a ball of thread from Daedalus. The great inventor Daedalus ignored the two women while the princess appeared startled by their entrance. Edana suspected this room did not see many visitors. 

"Why don't you take a nice hot bath?" Mrs. Malfoy suggested kindly. "I'll have the servants bring you dinner and you can turn in early." 

Edana nodded. She _was_ exhausted. The train ride had been long, but the rest of the day was longer still. A hot bath and bed sounded wonderful. 

After Mrs. Malfoy left, Edana went into the bathroom. It continued the cream and dark blue color scheme of the bedroom, though in the bathroom it was the blue that was the accent color. The room appeared carved of a lightly veined cream marble with a wonderful claw footed bath tub showcased in a corner. Unlike the bedroom, the bathroom had obviously been a later addition to the Manor. Muggles in the sixteenth century did not place a premium on cleanliness. 

Edana found jars of bubble bath, soap and hair potions in a cabinet by the tub and a pile of fluffy blue towels by the bath tub. Her bath was lovely, but the water revived her rather than added to her sleepiness. Her mind churned and with nothing else to distract her, Edana's thought returned to her mother and her own situation. 

"Mother really left you when Evan died." Edana told herself with a firmness she did not feel inside. The words sounded harsh and cold to her own ears, but with things as they were she needed to recover from her shock and grief quickly. She needed to know what really happened to her mother and why the Malfoy's took her in. To discover those two things she would need to be in her best state of mind. She had to push her pain and grief to a small dark corner of her mind and keep them there until she was in a place where such feelings could be dealt with.

After her bath, Edana devoured the meal she found on a serving tray. It was delicious but she hardly noticed as her mind was already considering her next step. She felt removed from herself, as though she were plotting the next move of a figure on a chessboard rather than her own actions. Her mother had not been a social creature, nor with the exception of Evan, was the family widely commented on. Edana suspected the Malfoy's were unaware of her existence before. The Malfoy's decision to take her in had been spur of the moment, otherwise she might have been met by Mr. Malfoy at King's Cross. 

She concluded that it was best to appear to follow Mrs. Malfoy's advice for the time being. She went to bed much earlier than usual, but only so she would wake up in a few hours to have a look around the house. If anyone asked questions she would claim to be looking for the kitchen for a glass of milk. Edana reasoned that becoming lost was something that happened quite often in this house. 

She found her trunk by her bed along with Shadow who was less than happy at having spent most of the day trapped in his cat basket. The cat clearly had been fed and was curled on the bed, his eyes half open and communicating his annoyance to his young Mistress. 

Edana scratched him between his ears. "Neither of us have had the best day, have we Shadow?" 

In response Shadoe purred. Edana laughed and changed into her nightgown, then she climbed into the bed with her pet. Within minutes they were both sound asleep. 

* * * 

At half past eleven, Edana eased out of bed, taking care not to disturb Shadow, who cocked a curious eye at her before stretching out and going back to sleep. She rearranged the numerous pillows to provide the illusion that she was actually in the bed while looking natural enough to avoid suspicion if she were caught in the hall. Charlie told her that his mother could not check on the twins from the doorway, but had to enter their room to see that they were in their beds, so many times they employed that particular trick. 

Despite being parents themselves, Edana did not believe Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy shared Mrs. Weasley's experience in such matters. 

She sought in her trunk for her dressing gown to cover her pale blue nightgown, which would be a beacon in the dark hallways. Edana was grateful that her dressing gown was dark green and easily faded into shadows. She pulled on matching slippers, slid her wand into her pocket, and opened the door as quietly as she could. 

The hallway was dim, but not so dark that doorways, furniture and corners were obscured. Edana tried to both retrace her steps and remember how to find her way back to her room. Mrs. Malfoy had led her down the carpeted hallway from the closed door to the left. Edana tried the door but it was locked from the other side. She wished she could unwind a ball of thread or drop breadcrumbs to mark her path back to her room. 

Just then, Edana heard the soft footsteps of a house elf scurrying down the hall. Edana sprinted to the next door. It, too, was locked. She tried the one across the hall and thanked her lucky stars that it was open and the room beyond it empty. 

The room Edana took refuge in was a study of sorts with a warm fire in the grate. There was a masculine quality to the decor that led her to believe this was Mr. Malfoy's private study. She went over to the desk opposite the fire, careful not to touch anything. If the Malfoys were anything like her mother, their more sensitive documents would be protected by a simple but effective sanguis charm. Anyone who touched something protected by a sanguis charm would experience a blinding pain unless they happened to be a close relative of the caster. Edana did not think her blood relationship to Lucius Malfoy close enough to test the charm. 

The documents on the desk did tempt her to try. On top was the parchment Mr. Malfoy showed her earlier. Edana angled herself to read it in detail. It was very correct and very legal, just as she remembered it. 

Partly visible under that parchment was something no less official. It appeared to be an inventory of her family vault and a summary of the portions of her parents wills that applied to the vault. 

"In such event, the contents of vault number 1215 may not be released to their owner until she comes of age. The sole exception is for a small allowance of fourteen galleons to be paid to Miss Rosier in person on the first day of August for school and personal expenses." 

It was signed by a senior Gringotts goblin and a barrister whose services her mother used on occasion. The date by the signatures was the previous month. 

As Edana considered both the sudden update of her mother's will and the significance of this document being on Mr. Malfoy's desk, she heard more footsteps coming down the hall. They were too heavy to be those of a house elf and they were approaching the very room she had taken refuge in. Edana ducked behind a large leather reading chair set into a small alcove. Edana was small and wiry and fit – with some discomfort – into the narrow space. She pulled the edge of her dressing gown closer to her and was glad of the shadows cast by the flickering fire and the chairs position that further concealed her from easy view. 

The door opened to admit Mr. Malfoy. He walked past Edana's chair and stood in front of the green marble fireplace. His manner was of a person waiting for something. 

Mr. Malfoy was not required to wait long. Less than a minute after his arrival a shrouded head appeared in the fire. Edana bit her lip to keep from gasping. 

"Well?" The figure demanded. The black cowl concealed every nuance of the person, but the voice was male, cultured, and had a touch of a Welsh accent. It was also familiar. Edana ransacked her memories to pinpoint the identity of the visitor without success. 

"Lenore Rosier was careful. She knew the Ministry was aware of the amulet though they were unable to confiscate it from her as the Aurors could not be certain the Mirror of Truth was being created for our lord. My source tells me it was not finished when they questioned her, but she later completed it in secret." Lucius growled. He poured himself a large shot of Firewhiskey from a bottle concealed in the top drawer of his desk. Edana was reminded of how her roommate Malina behaved when she was around Dru. She seemed annoyed that she was forced to deal with her as a peer when Malina saw herself as better by birth. The voice in the fire sounded younger, Edana decided, maybe Mr. Malfoy disliked having to answer to someone his junior. "It is in the Rosier family vault at Gringotts. The contents of the vault are frozen until her daughter turns 17, which won't be until she comes of age." 

"Could the girl be persuaded to aid us…?" 

"She can't access the vault at all. The only exception is a small yearly allowance for her school expenses. She may be from one of _our_ families, but I have yet to determine her loyalties." 

"There is still The Binding. I recall the Rosiers were among the families who participated, but only our Lord can draw upon that. We need that amulet, and soon." 

The Binding. Edana remembered hearing that term before, when her memory was more emotion than event, it was not something she thought to ask about before. She edged a bit closer in the hopes Mr. Malfoy or his guest would elaborate on the subject. 

Mr. Malfoy's irritation became more pronounced. "I'm aware of that." 

The shrouded wizard ignored Malfoy's annoyance. "Can you think of any way to get at the amulet before the girl's birthday? When is it exactly?" 

There was a sound of shuffling papers as Mr. Malfoy moved out of view. "She was born on September 18, 1969." 

"So she will be seventeen in 1986. Too long to wait. We need our lord and master back now." 

'They are weaker than ever." Mr. Malfoy said with a sneer, this time his loathing was not directed at his visitor. "They think they have us all. They think they are completely safe." 

"Our time will come." The man in the fire assured Mr. Malfoy. 

"How does things go with your efforts?" Mr. Malfoy inquired with a drawl. "You assured me that I would be kept informed." 

"The Aurors know something. We will pay a call to one of them – Frank Longbottom - soon to question him." 

Edana recognized the name of one of the Aurors who questioned her after Evan died. She did not like him, but he was Professor Wormwood's grandson. The former Potions Mistress had lost most of her family already. Edana did not like to think of her having to suffer another death. 

Mr. Malfoy frowned. "Attacking an Auror, that could put the Ministry on guard again. There are suspicions enough from Lenore Rosier's death." 

"We will interrogate Longbottom, obtain our information and place a powerful memory charm on him." 

"He'll notice the missing time. Aurors are trained to recognize when they have had a memory charm. The first thing he'll do is run to his friends like the obedient dog he is to have it removed." 

"But what if we come at night?" The voice demanded silkily. "We will interrogate him in his own home and when we are done, apply the charms and put the family back to bed as if nothing unusual happened. In the morning he will think his confusion the result of a poor night's sleep or a strange dream. 

"Perhaps," Malfoy agreed, taking a drink. "Take care entering his home. He'll have protections set up." 

"Nothing we cannot handle. Longbottom recently moved. He has not had time for the more secure wards. They take hours to set up and Longbottom has been working late at the office recently. His wife is not as skilled at wards though her potions are well known. There will be little difficulty in gaining entrance. We will go later in the week, during the dark of the moon." 

"That still brings us to the Mirror of Truth." 

"If we can find our lord and restore him, the amulet can be retrieved with ease. Our lord is more powerful than the goblins of Gringotts. Then we will know who is committed to the lord and who turned traitor and passed information to Dumbledore." 

"Send me word after you visit the Longbottoms." 

"Of course." 

With that the man disappeared from the fire. Mr. Malfoy downed another shot of whiskey before putting the bottle and glass away and departing the room. 

From her place behind he chair, Edana was frightened and bewildered. She knew enough to realize the two men were Death Eaters and planning an attack on the Longbottoms. There was also The Binding. Edana did not understand the reference, but she instinctively knew this was not something she ought to mention around. 

Edana managed to return to her bedroom without incident. She pulled Shadow into her lap and held him tight. Her mind was ablaze with what she overheard and she debated whether or not to warn Longbottom. 

She wanted a way to right some of her family's wrongs, maybe that would be a way. But if Mr. Malfoy found out…Edana shivered. And how? She did not have an owl and could not chance Mr. Malfoy or his wife learning what she had done. 

"Diagon Alley." Edana breathed. It would not take much to convince Mrs. Malfoy to take a trip or allow Edana to go by herself. Edana could slip away to post a letter to a friend and send the warning then with a post owl. No one would be able to trace it back to her. The Death Eater told Mr. Malfoy they would wait until later that week so she had a little time. 

* * * 

As expected, it was easy to convince Mrs. Malfoy to let her go to Diagon Alley. She gave Edana a few sickles to purchase a potion that she required for her latest project. Edana discovered that Mrs. Malfoy was an art restorer by profession, one of the few who specialized in magical paintings. Her skills were very much in demand, but her current focus was on the paintings in the Manor. 

"I almost forgot," Mrs. Malfoy said as Edana was about to leave. "Did your mother keep any animals? If so you should floo by on your way back to fetch them or they will starve to death." 

Edana had indeed forgotten about the two owls in tiny Rosier family owlery. "We have two owls. Cassandra – she was Evan's owl – and Aeneas our family owl. The house elves will see that they are fed, but it isn't good for them to be cooped up." 

"Send them here." Mrs. Malfoy suggested. 

Edana nodded. She accepted the floo powder Mrs. Malfoy offered and flung it into the fire. 

"Diagon Alley!" 

The journey was quick. Edana stepped out of the fireplace at the Leaky Caldron and checked her clothing for soot. The fireplace was kept in good order and Edana did not have much to worry about, but she did not want to wander around with a black smudge on her face so she always checked. 

She found the potion Mrs. Malfoy wanted and a book she had intended to buy. Then Edana went to the owl office and slipped in with a crowd of Ministry wizards on lunch break. The standard owl counter was busy and Edana was able to tie her two letters – one to Longbottom, the other to Professor Dumbledore – to the right legs of two bored barn owls and slip a sickle into the moke skin money pouch fixed on their left legs for that purpose. The letters were written on standard parchment in all capital letters and with her left hand to disguise her handwriting. Edana was certain neither of the two men she was writing had ever seen anything she had written, but it never hurt to take additional care.

Edana flooed home and composed letters for Illiana and Charlie and sent them off with the two owls, now hers. She wished she could join her letter and go to Charlie's house, but she knew that would not be a good idea. Charlie's brothers would torment him and their relationship would be yanked in the sunlight. Any chance of pretending to have Death Eater sympathies to get information from the Malfoys would be obliterated by the revelation that was was involved with a Gryffindor.

Still, she could not help wanting to see Charlie. To break down and cry in his arms and have him touch her hair and tell her it would be all right. Edana knew it would never be all right again, but she still wanted to hear it. 

"I'm at Malfoy Manor now," Edana told the two somber birds. "So don't come back here after the delivery. I'm certain the Malfoy's keep good owl treats." 

As the owls flew away, Edana forced herself to lit a fire and floo back to Malfoy Manor. It irked her that she was unlikely to know the detailed results of her interference, but maybe she could glean something from her guardians. Of course, that meant spending time with them and being polite. 

And saintly patience was not among Edana Rosier's virtues. 

* * * 

Next Chapter: Due out sometime later this month, chapter thirteen features Edana doing a little research, the young Draco scenes originally intended for this chapter, and much more. 

* * * 

Chapter Eleven Reviewers 

Iniga: Thanks for pointing out the typo!  
No, Charlie does not know Edwards tried to blackmail Edana. Neither of them are interested in letting him know. As for Edana and Charlie... I hate love/hate and love at first site relationships. Since I'm not great writing romance, so I jumped ahead to their being an established couple. 


	13. Buried Secrets

**"A Slytherin Black Sheep"**   
** Chapter Thirteen: Buried Secrets **

_ Every street lamp seems to beat   
A fatalistic warning   
Someone mutters and the street lamp gutters   
and soon it will be morning_

- "Memories" from _Cats_

Edana arrived at Malfoy Manor and handed over the flask of potion Mrs. Malfoy requested along with the change to a waiting house elf who instructed her to dress for dinner. Not certain of what to wear, Edana put on a set of nice robes that, while not among her best, were certainly of a better cut and quality than her everyday or school things. As she finished, Mrs. Malfoy came to fetch her. 

"You look lovely, dear." Mrs. Malfoy said. She had changed into lavender evening robes. "I was worried you might not find your way. The layout of the house is confusing." 

"Yes it is," Edana agreed. 

"Lucius's ancestors took a page from the Hogwart's founders. If an intruder did manage to enter the Manor, they would not know where anything was located." 

The dinning room was paneled in polished dark stained oak and contained several suits of armor that whispered about the meal as the two women passed them. The dinning table in the Malfoy table was made of highly polished mahogany. Mrs. Malfoy told Edana it could be expanded to accommodate a party of twenty. 

"Lucius considered a larger table, but I informed him that twenty was quite enough. More than that is overwhelming." Mrs. Malfoy said as she took her place in the hostess's seat. 

"It's a lovely table." Edana commented. As she sat down, she noticed the birch inlay around the border of the table. The work was so fine it could only be magical - and the work of an expert at that. 

Mrs. Malfoy beamed. "The table has been in my family for three generations. When Lucius and I were married, I insisted the old table - an oak trestle of all things - be moved to another room. Lucius was a bit stubborn, but he eventually saw my way." 

As though her words were an introduction, Lucius appeared leading a young boy of about six years. Father and son greeted the two women formally before taking their places, Edana noted the boy glancing over at his father and copying his motions. 

"Draco, this is your cousin Edana Rosier." Mr. Malfoy introduced the two. 

"Good evening Cousin Edana," Draco chirped with saccharine sweetness, bobbing his head in another obvious imitation of his father. 

Edana was amused, but managed not to show it. If Draco was anything like she was at that age he would be hurt by the notion of anyone finding his attempt to mimic adult manners adorable. "Good evening, Cousin Draco. It is a pleasure to meet you." 

"I think it would be permissible for you and Draco to simply use your given names," Lucius said in what he appeared to think was a magnanimous tone. He seemed to be going out of his way to engender familial feelings in her. Edana wanted to know why, but suspected real answers would not be forthcoming any time soon. "We are all family after all. Edana's mother died a few days ago and her family is not able to take care of her right now and she will be staying with us for the time being." 

Edana found herself grateful Lucius did not elaborate. Draco appeared to accept this explanation as he moved on to a topic that appealed far more to the young boy. 

"Do you like Quidditch, Edana?" Draco asked after the soup course was served. 

Edana was still tired from her trip, her lack of sleep the previous night, and not interested in discussing Quidditch, but she suspected it would be better to play the casual family guest. "Yes, I do." 

"I want to play Quidditch at Hogwarts, you are in Hogwarts aren't you? What house are you in?" 

"I'm in Slytherin." 

Draco nodded in a mannerism reminiscent of his mother. "Do you play Quidditch?" 

"I'm a Chaser." 

"Oh," a disappointed Draco said, "I want to be either a Beater or a Seeker." 

"Slytherin always needs a good Seeker." Edana reminded him. "The current team will have all left when you arrive at Hogwarts." 

Draco grinned around a mouthful of rice. Mrs. Malfoy shot her son a warning look and the boy made a visible effort to recover his table manners. 

* * * 

After dinner Mrs. Malfoy pulled Edana aside. 

"The funeral will be on Saturday." She said quietly, then in a louder voice suggested Draco show her the library while she and Lucius talked. Edana would have dearly loved to have been pivy to that conversation, but instead she followed Draco to the Malfoy family library. It was a large room with vaulted ceilings that contained about a third of the books as the Hogwarts library, but with a different selection. Edana noticed a great deal of books on history, both ancient and modern, and the dark arts, but very little concerning Muggle studies or divination. She peered at the titles, some of them were in the Restricted Section at Hogwarts but none were on the illegal list as far as she could tell. If the Malfoys had any of those books it was doubtful they would keep them with their legitimate collection. 

But then again, was not the best place to hide something in plain site? 

Edana waited until Draco's nanny chased him off to bed to begin probing the library in depth. Surely Aurors had searched the house during the investigation into Lucius Malfoy? Then again the Aurors look into Malfoy had been cursory by all accounts. 

Edana decided she needed more information on the family. She discovered that the Malfoy's purchased the bound collections the _Daily Prophet _printedof each years papers . Since the books came with a comprehensive index it was much easier to search for specific things than checking individual editions. She decided to start there. 

She began with 1981, but found only articles containing information she already knew. A few paragraphs about Mr. Malfoy's arrest and a handful of longer articles when he was released two days later. All charges were dismissed due to his being under the Imperius Curse. Aside from a few scattered editorials about the speed and quality of justice afforded wealthy pure-bloods nothing further was printed on the matter. 

A search of the1980 volume yielded Draco's birth notice. Edana skimmed the brief article. Draco's birth occurred the same day as the attack on the Prewitts, a prominent Slytherin family, and the news and obituaries took up so much room that the birth of such a prominent family's heir merited only three sentences on the fourth page. It was all but buried between a scathing commentary on the Ministry and an article by a former Slytherin denouncing "unwarranted prejudice against our noble house" by the magical community and pointing to the Prewitt murders as evidence that Slytherins were not immune from Death Eater attacks. 

Edana closed the 1980 volume. She knew there were articles inside the book about Evan's death, but she never intended to read them. She did not want to know any more of the specifics than she already did. 

On a whim she tried the 1982 volume. With You-Know-Who defeated, previously classified information and rumors were recounted and picked over by self appointed experts in the _Prophet_. She wonder if Mr. Malfoy's claims of innocence had been subjected to the experts scrutiny. Probably, Edana decided, though she figured it unlikely that those particular bits would be printed in the _Prophet_. The Malfoy's were wealthy enough to keep good solicitors on retainer. 

Then a listing caught her eye. 

Binding, The... 56, 89 __

"There is still The Binding. I recall the Rosiers were among the families who participated, but only our Lord can draw upon that." 

Edana turned to page fifty-six. 

"Edana?" 

Edana slammed the book shut as Mrs. Malfoy entered the room. 

"What are you reading?" 

"I wanted to see if my name ever appeared in the Prophet," Edana replied ingeniously. 

Mrs. Malfoy smiled. "I think everyone has wondered if anything about them was printed at some point, but you needn't slam books shut." 

"You startled me." It was, after all, the truth. 

* * * 

Edana wondered if her behavior in the library sparked Mrs. Malfoy's suspicions after all. Either that or she thought Edana was reading about her brother's death and wanted to keep her from that so soon after her Mother's death. Either out of a desire to protect Edana from her curiosity or to keep her from stumbling on any damaging articles, Mrs. Malfoy found ways of keeping her young charge away from the library in a most creative way: by having her join Draco's tutoring sessions. 

Edana was not pleased at having to join a class whose sole other member was not old enough to be sorted, but the subjects she shared with the boy were not ones she was taught at Hogwarts: French, Latin, Muggle History, and Magical Literature. In that last subject, she and Draco read different books chosen by Draco's tutor Mrs. Pembergast. 

Mrs. Pembergast appeared delighted to have an additional student. Draco Malfoy was an intelligent child and could exude charm when he chose, but he was far too used to having his own way and not eager to learn anything that did not interest him. Muggles bored him and their history was greeted with disdain until Mrs. Pembergast mentioned some of their wars and discussed Muggle weaponry. Anything involving blood and gore attracted Draco's immediate interest, much to Edana's annoyance. 

"This arrow was used to pierce armor," Mrs. Pembergast explained. It did help her lessons that the Manor was littered with so many examples of armor, swords, axes, longbows and other devices from the Muggle occupancy and Mr. Malfoy's extensive collection. They had all been charmed into place to prevent curious children from playing with them. 

It surprised Edana that the Malfoy's wanted their son taught Muggle history until she realized that they were using it to instill a sense of superiority in Draco. The Muggle weapons served that purpose as well as being trophies and disturbing visitors. 

"That's all it did?" Draco sneered as he studied the arrow. "Just poke through the armor?" 

"Muggle arrows have been known to be tipped with poisons at times, but since they cannot use Magic, there were no enchantments." Mrs. Pembergast explained. 

"Why is the end shaped like that?" Edana indicated the ragged edge of the arrow head. 

Mrs. Pembergast looked down at the arrow, running her finger gently along the metal tip. "It was designed so that it could not be pulled out of a victim. It had to be cut out." 

Draco's interest grew at that disclosure. 

* * * 

After lessons with Draco and Mrs. Pembergast, Edana made certain to check the papers for anything on the Longbottoms or her mother's obituary. She arranged for her mother's subscription to be sent to her at Malfoy Manor as it was already paid for the year. 

After the brief obituary appeared in the _Prophet_, Edana was surprised to receive several letters of sympathy. Most were from people she knew from school, people who never met her mother. There was even one from her roommate Malina, but Edana could not bring herself to read it. She tucked it into her trunk. 

There were also a handful of letters that left her feeling cold and unclean after she read them. They were carefully composed so not to incriminate, but the Death Eater sentiments stained every stroke of the writers quills. 

She hoped the writers of those letters would not appear at the funeral, but she doubted she would be that fortunate. 

* * * 

Lenore Rosier's funeral was better attended than that of her son; the presence of the Malfoys almost made it a society event for the Muggle loathing set. Edana, the Malfoys and Uncle Brian filled the first row of seats. Edana was uncomfortable in her stiff chair, a feeling compounded by the black linen dress robes and uncomfortable new shoes she wore. She had never worn stilettos before and wished for a charm to help her balance when walking in them. The sheer stockings she wore with the shoes did not help matters. They made her shoes feel as though they were about to slip off. 

It was felt vaguely wrong to wear black stockings to her mother's funeral. Mrs. Rosier had believed stockings inappropriate for those under seventeen and forbade Edana from wearing anything other than socks or tights until she came of age. Mrs. Malfoy, however, was horrified at the notion of Edana still wearing tights to a formal event at fourteen and provided her with a pair. Edana did not feel much like arguing, though she did draw the line at make-up. 

Edana barely heard the eulogy Uncle Brian gave. She spent the entire time in her own thoughts, alternately remembering her pre-Hogwarts days and the closeness she shared with her mother then and wishing the funeral over. For some reason Edana could not explain to herself, she felt incredibly uncomfortable and vulnerable. 

At least she was not the only one eager to leave. Draco had a difficult time staying in his seat through the entire service, tugging at the collar of his dress robes and fidgeting. Mrs. Malfoy had to lean over and hiss at him to behave several times. Draco would keep still for a time before the urge to swing his feet or squirm became too much. 

The luncheon after the service was, in Edana's opinion, excruciating though Draco appeared happier at being able to move about. Strangers came up to her to express condolences and chat with her. Edana knew it was polite to speak with them, but it was hard to think of things to say after pleasantries were exchanged. Thankfully those who came to talk with her were willing to accept her excuses and bring their discussions to a quick close. Edana wished they would leave her be so she could sit down and brood. The back of her heels ached from where her shoes rubbed through her stockings and against her skin. 

Uncle Brian noticed the way Edana kept shifting her weight from one foot to the other and led her away from the crowd to a couch. "Edana, please sit down." 

Edana sat down. She fished around for something to say. "You gave a nice eulogy." 

Uncle Brian shrugged. "You look different in that outfit...older." 

"Are you sure it's the outfit alone?" 

"Grief does have a way of aging the soul." Uncle Brian agreed. There was a weariness in his voice Edana only partially understood. "And speaking of grief, how are the Malfoys?" 

Edana looked around for the family to make sure they could not hear before answering. "I want to go home." Her voice sounded whiny to her own ears. 

"I wish you could go home too." Uncle Brian replied. 

Edana tried to speak but the words would not come. Uncle and niece sat on the couch as conversations flowed around them. 

"Poor dear, must be shattered..." 

"Some bloke in the pub told me about it." 

"Solicitor's fees are outrageous these days!" 

Edana closed her eyes. She decided she hated funeral more than ever and resolved never to attend another. They were so false. She doubted anyone in the room other than herself and Uncle Brian cared anything about Lenore Rosier. 

* * * 

Edana kicked off her uncomfortable shoes and watched one end up under the bed. The house elves left the evening Prophet for her on the bedside table just as she requested. She flipped through the paper, searching for information on the outcome of her warning, when a headline snagged her attention. The article was sketchy but Edana thrilled that the Longbottoms were alive and their Death Eater attackers arrested. 

_ AUROR ATTACKED! _

Respected Auror Frank Longbottom was kidnapped on his return home and interrogated by a group of Death Eaters. When he refused to speak, the Death Eaters forced their way into his home and tortured his wife, Emily. At some point, Longbottom was able to escape and summon help. Ministry officials and Aurors arrived on the scene and arrested four individuals whose names were not available at press time. 

The Longbottoms are currently at St. Mungo's hospital for Magical Maladies receiving treatment. An update on their condition will be posted as soon as information becomes available. 

She folded the paper and placed it in her trunk. Edana could not help but feel smug that things had turned out all right: the Longbottoms lived and their attackers were in custody. 

* * *

Next Chapter: Edana discovers and must face the full facts of what happened to the Longbottoms, including her own involvement.

* * *

Chapter Twelve Reviewers

The Face of Evil: Not all the details are in on what happened to the Longbottoms. More information on that will be in Chapter 14.


	14. Silver Responsibilities

**"A Slytherin Black Sheep"**  
**Chapter Fourteen: Responsibilities**

The next morning at breakfast, Mr. Malfoy scowled into his goblet, which Edana suspected his contained something stronger than the orange juice she and Draco were served. She focused on her plate and pretended to be still somewhat sleepy in order to avoid attracting attention. This turned out to be surprisingly simple, with Mr. Malfoy in irritable as a bear with a thorn in its paw, no one made any real stab at small talk.

Edana had good reason to fear Mr. Malfoy. Days earlier she eavesdropped on Mr. Malfoy as he conversed with a cloaked figure about a Death Eater attack. The Death Eaters planned to kidnap and interrogate Auror Frank Longbottom, then place a memory charm on him afterwards to conceal their questioning without alerting the Ministry to their continued activity. Usually an Auror would be suspicious if they lost track of time, but by scheduling the attack for late at night Longbottom would likely to attribute his dizziness, lack of memory, and disorientation to a bad night's sleep, a common occurrence in his profession.

To prevent this, Edana sent warnings off to Longbottom and Professor Dumbledore, carefully composed so that they could not be traced back to her. Lucius Malfoy had been able to evade even the flimsiest of criminal charges stemming from his involvement in the Dark Arts and Edana did not doubt that he could wiggle out of a murder indictment just as easily.

She chanced a look at Mr. Malfoy and for the first time wondered if she had done the right thing after all. If he discovered what she had done, he would kill her himself. Then he would dispose of her body and dutifully report her missing to the authorities.

Of course, that would create problems for Mr. Malfoy. From the overheard conversation, Edana learned that he wanted something that was stored in her family Gringott's vault. As Edana was not yet of age, she was bound by her mother's will which prevented anyone from accessing the vault. Mr. Malfoy had no choice but to wait. An inconvenience, but one that would eventually pass.

If Edana died , however, her Gringotts vault would be sealed pending the designation of an heir. Since she was not yet of age and could not dictate a will, inheritance would be decided by the courts, and it had never taken less than seven years to settle an inheritance matter.

Of course, Mr. Malfoy was capable of waiting until she came of age, forcing her to write a will leaving him everything, and then killing her.

"Lucius, dear, are you all right?" Narcissa ventured without a hint of anxiety smudging her collected demeanor. Edana was grateful for the distraction as her thoughts became more and more morbid.

"I'm tired, Narcissa." Lucius grumbled into his goblet. "A business venture went awry and I was up half the night tending to complications."

"What kind of 'business venture', father?" Draco asked eagerly.

The pale wizard froze, when he spoke a moment later his words were measured. "I was hoping to purchase the controlling share in the _Daily Prophet_, but the share holder decided at the last minute not to sell."

"Oh," Draco said, dropping the matter and returning to his breakfast. Mr. Malfoy's answer either satisfied his curiosity or the boy knew his father well enough to know not to inquire further.

* * *

After breakfast, Edana was forced to join Draco and his tutor in the library. Thankfully she was able to effect a swift retreat to her room with a promise to read the book Mrs. Pembergast assigned cover to cover by the next morning. She had neglected to inform the older witch that she had already read _The Withering Spoon _before Hogwarts at her mother's insistence. She remembered enough of the plot to prove she had indeed completed her assignment without having to open the book. _The Withering Spoon _was a depressing moral tale about a witch who falls in love with a Muggle-born wizard, but ultimately rejects him to marry the pureblood her family wants her to wed.

She always hated the book, though her mother and most witches in her age bracket raved about it.

To Edana, the flobberworm spined heroine of the tale, Lissette, had about as much sense as a pixie and her two suitors were not any better. Henry, the Muggle-born, had each and every line of his dialog written in an almost comical interpretation of a working class Muggle accent. Reading those sections gave Edana a headache. Preston, Lissette's eventual husband, who was supposed to be an example of fine breeding came across as a stuffier male version of Lissette. All the characters save Henry used flowery language best left to melodramatic Victorian bodice rippers, even though the book was supposed to be set in the modern era.

Edana placed the book on her night table, instead perusing through a book she received by owl order but had not yet had time to examine: _Charms and Curses of the Ancient World _by Heroditus Mumbly. She found herself fascinated by the variety of charms the ancient Egyptians used on mummies and temples. They were so complex.

Despite the fact that she slept through each and every one of Professor Binns' lectures on the subject, Edana enjoyed history, though she was drawn more to the ancient rather than the modern. Her interest had proved the salvation of her History of Magic grade.

* * *

After dinner, which was just her and Draco as Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were attending a charity ball in London, Edana returned to her reading. She was engrossed in the middle of a section on charms used to keep sand out of temple carvings when she rested her eyes for what seemed just a moment. The next thing she knew, she was being shaken awake by a Malfoy family house elf and the colors of sunrise streamed through her window.

This particular elf was a rather pitiful specimen to her eye. The Rosier family elves always dressed in clean pillowcases with a floral pattern, the Malfoy elf wore a dirty and stained tea towel draped around this bony form toga fashion. Edana was amazed Mrs. Malfoy permitted the creature in her house.

"Mistress Malfoy wants you downstairs," the elf warbled at her.

"Why?" Edana demanded as she stretched and yawned. She wanted to roll over, curl up with her sleepy cat on the bed, and go back to sleep.

"You has a visitor. Missus Malfoy wishes you dress." The elf said, then vanished to give her privacy.

Surprised at the news, Edana hauled herself up and hurried to dress. She could not imagine who would come to see her here without giving her ample warning.

Edana was not as concerned about her looks as most witches her age, but she liked her appearance to be neat and tidy. There was not time for a shower - and she was forbidden to use magic over the summer - so she had to make do. She shucked the clothes she had slept in, pulled on fresh blue robes, splashed a little water on her face, and ran an brush through her sleep tousled hair. Then she checked her reflection.

"Not too bad, dear, for such short notice," her mirror announced after a moment. "Not suitable for a society ball, but your are presentable."

"Thanks," Edana muttered. She returned to her bed to kiss Shadow between his ears. The cat was quite asleep and did not stir. His mistress envied him at that moment.

* * *

The elf - whose name Edana could never recall - was waiting for her outside her room. She was grateful to him, without assistance she would never be able to locate the entrance hall. Malfoy Manor was designed to confound visitors and prevent thieves from reaching the family's inner sanctums, which it did all too well as far as Edana was concerned, she still counted herself lucky to arrive at meals without having to retrace her steps.

In the entrance hall, Mr. Malfoy stood by a suit of armor in slightly rumpled black robes with an expression of utmost annoyance peeking through his veneer of cultured civility. Next to him was Mrs. Malfoy in a far less ornate ensemble than Edana was accustomed to seeing her in. This was the first time Edana had ever seen her without shoes that exactly matched her robes and her wedding ring the only jewelry visible on her person..

And opposite the Malfoys in both the room and philosophy was Albus Dumbledore.

Edana halted in mid step at the sight of the elderly wizard. Of all the possible early morning visitors to Malfoy Manor, Professor Dumbledore was the last one she would ever expect to see.

"Good morning Miss Rosier," Dumbledore beamed. Unlike the Malfoys, Dumbledore was dresssed exactly as she had last seen him from his combed beard and sparking eyes to the boots on his feet.

__

You can tell he's a Gryffindor, Edana thought irritably. _No true Slytherin could ever be a morning person. _

It was a challenge not to yawn. "Good morning Professor."

"I was just telling Mrs. Malfoy the most interesting joke I heard the other day about three witches from Madrid, but I suppose it is not really suitable for young ears." At this Dumbledore's gaze flicked up to the second floor balcony where Draco Malfoy was watching the proceedings with great interest. As the headmaster's focus returned to Edana, the sparkle in his eyes dimmed and his manner became more somber. "I need to speak to you - alone - on a matter pertaining to your mother's death."

"The east drawing room would be suitable," Mrs. Malfoy offered.

Edana suspected the east drawing room contained a covert method of eavesdropping and made a note to herself to be more careful of her activities within the Manor.

"I will have to decline your generous offer Narcissa," Dumbledore said in his kind but firm tone. "There is something for Miss Rosier that I left behind at Hogwarts. If you would be so kind as to direct me towards your fireplace, I will return your ward after our conversation."

The Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were less than happy at that suggestion, but eventually agreed to show Dumbledore to a fireplace and allow him to take Edana with him.

* * *

Edana had never had cause to visit the headmaster's office before. She was hardly a discipline problem and in her entire Hogwarts career only received a handful of detentions. The room with its silver contraptions and sleepy portraits reminded her very much of Dumbledore, so much so that she felt confident that had she been shown the room and asked to guess to whom it belonged she would have immediately named Dumbledore.

"Please, take a seat," Dumbledore insisted, gesturing to a small silver chair in front of his desk. The cushions of the chair were green velvet and very comfortable. When Edana was seated, the older wizard settled into his desk chair.

"What do you want to talk to me about?" Edana asked, trying her best to appear unruffled.

Dumbledore smiled, amused. "Every Slytherin student who has ever occupied that chair has asked a version of that very question. Quite telling of the nature of the house."

"Every Slytherin student?"

"Each and every one." The headmaster confirmed as he reached into his robes and handed her a letter. "Still, there is something to be said for cutting right to the meat of a matter."

Edana recognized it straight away as the very letter she owled to him about the attack on the Longbottoms. She managed not to allow her nervousness show through. "It is not addressed to me." Edana noted carefully. She turned the letter over and opened it to read its contents as though she really had never seen it before.

"You sent it," Dumbledore said blandly, waving away her protests to the contrary before she could utter a sound. "Don't bother to deny it. An off duty Auror was behind you in line at the owl office. He was among those who had been assigned to watch your family after your brother's death and recognized you. He wondered why you would write to me and Mr. Longbottom, we are not among your usual correspondents. He contacted me over the fire even before your owl left London."

"Oh," said Edana. Her cheeks burned and she felt very foolish. She thought no one could connect the letters to her. She wondered who else would be able to duplicate that feat. For the second time in as many days the idea that Mr. Malfoy might find out fluttered through her mind, causing her entire body to grow cold.

"You need not be concerned about anyone else discovering your warning," Dumbledore told her, guessing the direction of her thoughts. "The only ones who know are the Auror and myself."

"You will pardon me if I remain a touch concerned," Edana replied tartly. "Three can keep a secret if two are dead."

"Three can also keep a secret if they seldom encounter each other." Dumbledore countered. "Undisturbed locks seldom weaken, it is only when there is much tugging and pulling that they break allowing secrets to spill out and roll around like loose marbles."

Edana sniffed, still not convinced but at the moment she had no choice but to trust Dumbledore. She could hardly use a memory charm on him. "I assume you want to know where I got my information."

"I did not summon you here to interrogate you as to the identity of your source, though I am confident I already know. I called you here to inform you of two thing. First, the outcome of events."

"The Longbottoms were attacked, but survived," Edana replied. "I read about it in the _Daily Prophet_."

"They are indeed alive, but not all the information has been made available to the _Prophet_. Mr. Longbottom shored up the wards on his house, but the Death Eaters detected this and altered their plan. They abducted him when he went to meet with an informant. The informant was acting under the Imperius curse when she sent him an owl requesting an emergency meeting. With Mr. Longbottom in their possession, the Death Eaters were able to cross the wards and enter his home." Dumbledore's voice grew weary, not from simple physical tiredness, but of having to witness the suffering of others. "They tortured him in front of his wife, then threatened to place the Cruciatus curse on his wife if he did not give them the information they sought. He did not yield."

"He is all right, isn't he?" The words tumbled out of her mouth before she could think about them. It was really a stupid question, one she thought more worthy of Lissette Stulte of _The Withering Spoon _than Edana Rosier of Slytherin_. _

Dumbledore shook his head sadly. "The Longbottoms are at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies. They are insane."

Edana gasped in horror. The human body could not withstand the Cruciatus curse forever; sooner or later the victim's mind would retreat from the horror of the situation. No one knew for certain how long it took to drive someone insane that way, there had been rumors that Voldemort knew after having experimented on captured Aurors and Ministry officials.

"Is there any hope?" Sometimes, but not very often, a person driven insane could be restored to a degree of sanity. They would never be quite as stable, but they could function in society.

"It is too soon to be certain, but from what I have heard the prognosis is not good."

Edana slumped into her chair. "I should not have interfered."

Dumbledore looked at her sharply. "You warned the Longbottoms. They sent their son to stay with relatives because of your warning. And I will tell you this - though you cannot repeat it - the Ministry was aware that the Death Eaters planned such a strike on an Auror though they were not certain which. Frank would not have been caught unawares as his enemies had hoped, but without your warning, his son might be now with his parents at St. Mungo's."

Edana digested this. It eased a little of her guilt but by no means all. 

"Some would call you a hero."

Edana shuddered. "I don't wish to be a hero. They all die alone and miserable."

"As do many who are not heroes. The difference is that the passing of a hero is noted."

"Yes, but I plan to die of old age with by loads of cats and grandchildren to spoil."

Dumbledore chuckled. "I hope you attain your goal, Miss Rosier."

"What was the second thing you wanted to tell me?"

For the second time in less than an hour, Dumbledore reached across his desk to hand her a letter. This one was a Hogwarts letter, though rather lumpier than she was used to receiving. Edana broke the seal and found a shiny silver prefect's badge nestled within the envelope along with her book list.

"I'm a prefect?" Edana whispered. She looked up at the headmaster. "Why?"

The old wizard shrugged. "The Sorting Hat chooses prefects as well as Head Boy and Head Girl. I have never had cause to question it's choices."

"I can't believe it," Edana said staring at the badge as though she thought it made by leprechauns.

"Why not? Your marks are excellent, you work hard at Quidditch and none would ever describe you as a discipline problem. You are a credit to Slytherin, the sort of student who should lead your house."

"I'm not exactly the kind of person other Slytherins look up to," Edana pointed out, unable to keep all the bitterness out of her voice.

"You have never been in a leadership position before. I think you will surprise yourself."

Edana was still doubtful.

"I think it best if you returned to Malfoy Manor. If your guardians ask, we discussed your mother and your new position."

Edana started to leave, but stopped after half a step. "Why did you tell me about the Longbottoms?"

Dumbledore sighed. "You are in a position to hear many things...and you deserved to know."

"I assume you want me to owl you if I stumble upon anything else."

"I hope you will."

A strange recklessness filled Edana. She was tired of being tossed about like a Quaffle by events and having to search long for crumbs of truth. "I'll be taking a big risk and I want something in return. I want - no, need - to know something. It's about something called 'The Binding'. What is it and how does it apply to me?"

Dumbledore pierced her with his searching eyes, then nodded. "Fair enough, I will tell you all I know and some that I have guessed."

Edana returned to the chair.

Dumbledore looked out the window at the horizon as he began to speak. "Your year is rather unbalanced, is it not?"

Edana had to agree. There were only two Slytherin boys in her year, and in addition to lower numbers there a higher percentage of Muggle-born students than usual. At one time in her life that bothered her, but Edana prided herself on espousing only logical causes and beliefs. She arrived at Hogwarts having only known pure-bloods, accepting of the myth of superiority, but in her time at the school she met talented Muggle-borns like Illiana's friend Sabrina. By the time she met Sabrina, she had known ostracism and was willing to revise her opinions of someone who was kind to her without an ulterior motive. 

"The Binding is part responsible for that. Two who might have worn the green and silver of Slytherin are dead." The ancient wizard sighed like a leaf rattling on a tree branch. "Any unnatural end is a tragedy, but when the victim is an infant the sorrow is magnified. An infant is without defense, they cannot object to what is done to them. That is the responsibility of the parents, but the parents of those unfortunate children sacrificed them to their ambition and blindness. It was your father who objected, and that was why he was murdered."

* * *

Next Chapter: Edana learns what really happened to her father and the details of the Binding. She is also given advice by Professor Snape, and determines the direction of her future career.

* * *

Chapter Thirteen Reviewers: 

The Face of Evil: What do you think about this chapter and the answers on the Longbottoms? I had a horrible time with it because it stitches a bunch of stuff together. Had to scrap my outline and early drafts four times. Its still not my favorite chapter, but like SW episode 1 it is needed for the next part.

Iniga: Flattery will get you somewhere. I hate characters who are always on the ball, so Edana is not always going to figure things out right away. She could also do with some serious therapy and help on her peer relation skills. 

googoo4you: Lucius is, isn't he. As for Narcissa, think iron hand in an embroidered silk glove. I'm hoping to fit a Quidditch game between Edana and Draco in the next few chapters. 


	15. Interludes & Reflections

** "A Slytherin Black Sheep" **   
**Chapter Fifteen: Interludes & Reflections**

__

"So take the phonographs  
And still frames in your mind.  
Hang it on a shelf  
In good health and good time."

-"I Hope You Had the Time of Your Life" by Greenday

The headmaster's voice rang heavy in Edana's ears. It seemed to her that time and the outside world faded as he spoke, as though they knew the significance of Dumbledore's words.

"Your year is rather unbalanced, is it not? "The Binding is part responsible for that. Two who might have worn the green and silver of Slytherin are dead. Any unnatural end is a tragedy, but when the victim is an infant the sorrow is magnified. An infant is without defense, they cannot object to what is done to them. That is the responsibility of the parents, but the parents of those unfortunate children sacrificed them to their ambition and blindness. It was your father who objected, and that was why he was murdered."

Dumbledore paused, and for a moment, to the young eyes of his student he suddenly appeared as old as Professor Wormwood . Edana found it strange that he should seem so, but the veil of power that lent him strength slipped and she saw him for how he was: an aged and exhausted warrior longing for the true end of his war. It frightened her, but the moment passed and he picked up the thread of his tale.

"Voldemort commanded his earlier followers to present him with their infant children, as a test of their loyalty and devotion to him and his cause. Upon these children, he placed a powerful series of spells designed to encourage the child's aptitude for the Dark Arts and prevent any curse of theirs from affecting him unless he chose. The exact series of spells is unknown, but his early efforts resulted in the deaths of two boys who had the misfortune to be the first to be subjected to the ritual. You were the third. Voldemort learned from his past attempts and you survived, though the results were not what had been planned. Your ability to perform curses was reduced while your abilities to perform charms was heightened. This is often the case when one sense or skill is damaged, another is heightened in an effort to compensate."

Edana heard herself speak. "I don't understand how my father's death ties into this, even if he objected. He was killed by an Auror."

"Indeed, but did you ever wonder how that came to be? Your father did not want you involved with anything having to do with Voldemort, he did not approve of or trust him, though he held back from going to the Ministry because your mother had involved herself and he did not wish to loose her. I believe he felt that he could reason with her and draw her away from the Death Eaters, but your mother went around him and brought you to Voldemort for the binding. After your father found out, he was livid and your parents scarcely spoke. The neighbors noticed their sudden distance and wondered before arriving at their own conclusions."

Dumbledore refused to look at her as he concluded his explanation. "Your mother did begin to pull away from Voldemort, and after the passage of several years, she and your father began to reconcile. Voldemort did not approve of this, he wanted to retain your mother as there are few with the ability to create amulets on the level of hers. He fabricated evidence that your father was involved in the murder of an Auror's uncle and arranged for it to fall into the possession of that Auror. Your mother believed the Aurors responsible for your father's murder and reestablished her ties with the Death Eaters - though they were never as strong as before the binding was performed on you."

"Why kill my mother too?"

"That is not as easily answered, largely because time has yet to loosen tongues. I believe your mother was killed because she chose the wrong faction. In their master's absence the Death Eaters are not united, they war against each other. All sides hope to be the one to either replace or restore their master."

"And how does Lucius Malfoy fit into this? He wants the amulet my mother created."

"The amulet was tied to Voldemort. Lucius believes it can be used to locate him. He is wrong, the very magic that your mother used to tie the amulet to Voldemort obliterated any chance of his using it to find his master."

"So," Edana said slowly, "it doesn't really matter if he gets the amulet."

"It does matter," Dumbledore said sharply. "If Voldemort returns - and I believe he will - the amulet would permit him to pluck spies from his ranks without effort. Very few can craft a Mirror of Truth, and with your mother removed from their numbers it is very unlikely a replacement will be made."

Edana considered this for a moment and nodded. "The amulet is no use to me. What do you think I ought to do with it?"

Dumbledore shrugged. "I do not know, but there is not a shortage of time to consider options. The amulet can not be touched until you come of age. For now, I believe it is time for you to return to Malfoy Manor."

* * *

Edana stepped out of the fireplace and checked her clothing for soot. The Malfoys kept their fireplaces in good order, but the habit was not one Edana wished to break.

Mrs. Malfoy had been seated in a tapestry backed chair in front of the fireplace and rose as soon as Edana appeared. Her entire demeanor was a mask of concern.

"Edana dear. You look tired," Mrs. Malfoy noted after a minute of waiting for Edana to speak without any result. "Dumbledore did not say anything too...distressing, did he?"

"No," Edana responded, allowing her head to droop forward as though she were more exhausted than she felt. "He asked about how I was. I think he only bothered to inquire because my mother was the last of my immediate family."

It was a reasonable explanation and quite in character for Dumbledore, Edana was rather proud of it and even prouder when Mrs. Malfoy excepted it without a hard look or whisper of suspicion.

"He also told me that I've been made a prefect," Edana said in her most matter-of-fact tone. She opened her hand to show the older woman the silver badge.

"I'm certain that you will do Slytherin house proud," Mrs. Malfoy told her. She appeared serious.

"Thank you. Would you mind if I went to bed now? I'm really very tired."

"Of course, dear."

* * *

In the long hours of the night, Edana had nothing to distract her from her own thoughts. She found herself trapped in the memory of her conversation with Dumbledore. Not even in her dreams could she find respite, the words replayed themselves like a magical wireless with its off button removed. It was a maze without an exit.

A desire for vengeance now burned inside Edana. She skipped past the Malfoy's in her mental ranking of those to blame to the source. The binding might bar her from hexing Voldemort out of existence, but their were other ways to hinder or inflict harm. Achilles was felled by an arrow to his ankle, all she had to find was one small vulnerability or pave the way for someone else to.

Edana searched through her trunk, not an easy task in the dark but she dared not turn on a light, before her hand found the framed picture of her father holding her as a baby. Though she carried such family pictures with her to school, she felt uncomfortable at displaying them. It was hard to be confronted by her dead when she was not ready, she preferred to seek out their images on her own time. Now was one of those times, she smiled at her own baby face before she traced the outline of her father's features with her finger. She finally understood the sorrow in his expression. 

Vendetta was something known to all Slytherins, but Edana had never really given it much thought before. It was an archaic magic little practiced by those not placed in Slytherin, it did not even require a wand to set it. Edana put the picture of her father face up on the bed and knelt in front of it. The next requirement was more difficult. 

To cast a vendetta a person needed two things: a picture or personal possession of the one harmed, and an image or belonging of the enemy they wished to cast the spell against. No known photographs existed of Voldemort, but Edana heard of a successful vendetta being performed using a picture of a teapot transfigured by the person when no photograph of the individual could be found. The trick was to know who cast the spell, but Edana would have take her chances.

Opposite her father's picture, she added an old Daily Prophet clipping that she had kept because it mentioned her brother joining the Ministry. That article was on the reverse side contained a picture of the Dark Mark fluttering over a small house. The attack on the Bones was reputed to be the work of Voldemort himself and not one of his Death Eaters. It would have to suffice.

With her cat shadow watching from under a table through half closed eyes, Edana tapped her wand first against her father's picture, then the clipping. The wand tap was merely ceremonial. She removed the back of the frame and closing her eyes cut her finger on a clipped corner of the picture frame glass. The blood she smeared across the dark mark, as she whispered the ancient Latin words, vowing that if an opportunity arose to oppose, harm or thwart Voldemort, she would take it.

With that done, she was able to burn the clipping and set the magic. As she watched paper turn to ash she hoped something horrible was happening to Voldemort at that very moment.

* * *

Later, Edana doubted whether she would be given a chance to act on her vendetta, but it was easier to cope after having gone through with the spell. It also made her feel more mature.

The summer began to trickle away. Even with Mrs. Pembergast adding more readings to her plate, Edana increased her private studies. It kept her from thinking about certain things and missing Charlie too much. The OWLS were coming up this year and she wanted good marks. She also was determined to get back into training or she would lose her position on the Slytherin Quidditch team to someone else. Fortunately, she happened to be staying at one of the few private homes to boast its own regulation Quidditch pitch.

The only problem with the private field was that Draco caught wind of her practices and insisted upon joining her.

"Father says it will be a disgrace if I don't play for Slytherin," Draco told her for the umpteenth time as they approached the field together. The child was lucky that he did not know how close he was coming to being thrown through one of the goal hoops. When he played rather than talked, he was a fair companion, and it was good to have someone to play against even if that person was six. Edana thought he might stand a chance of attaining his goal in a couple of years, though she thought him unsuited for the position he craved.

"I want to be a Seeker," Draco repeated each time Edana told him that he would make a good keeper or beater. He had good balance, the ability to look ahead to where the balls might be, and was surprisingly strong for his slight build. Seekers, Edana had noted, needed to distance themselves emotionally from the game and Draco involved himself too much to really shine there. Edana realized that he only wanted to be a seeker because of the glory attached to the position. Perhaps he would change his mind or Slytherin would have a star seeker by then. It would be years before he would be at Hogwarts, much less a second year and eligible to play for his house team. Everyone knew first years never made house teams.

* * *

September 1st finally arrived. Edana almost wept as she boarded the Hogwart's Express, she had never found any conveyance to be so magnificent. She almost ran straight into Illiana, who again hugged her tightly. This time it was her Head Girl badge that caused Edana discomfort.

"Why didn't you tell me you were made a prefect?" The Ravenclaw girl scolded her, though her face told Edana that she did not mean it.

Edana shrugged. "It hasn't sunk in that I'm really a prefect." 

"It will when you begin your duties," Illiana assured her. 

"I'm a bit nervous."

"So am I," The blond said as she tapped her own shiny new badge. "I can't ask an older student for advice this year!"

The Slytherin laughed. "But I can come to you for advice, right?"

"As I told you once before, anytime."

* * *

Edana found Charlie asleep in a back car. She figured that his Gryffindor friends either had yet to locate him or were keeping their distance so he could get some rest. Edana took the seat across from him and watched as he mumbled something. He looked very cute asleep.

Then one eye opened and Charlie smiled at her. "Were you watching me?"

"Yes."

"See anything you like?"

"Perhaps."

"I see they made you a prefect."

"Yes."

"Have a nice summer."

"No."

"Decided to limit yourself to single word responses?"

"Yes," Edana said. Then she giggled, for some reason she always felt very warm and giggly around Charlie. "There is a closet at the back of this compartment. Very large."

"Missed me?" Charlie asked, moving closer until their noses touched.

"Yes, but I would rather snog you in the closet. Less chance of interruptions."

"As you will, my lady. I would never dare refuse the suggestion of a prefect."

After that, there was not much talking until the train neared Hogsmeade.

* * * 

During dinner, Dru teased her about being made a prefect and her somewhat disheveled appearance, but Edana was too happy and relieved to be irritated or even annoyed. It was wonderful to be back at school and even better to be in the same room with Charlie, who kept shooting her grins from the Gryffindor table. Eventually Dru moved on to teasing the other new prefect Alex Amiti, whom everyone knew fancied her. 

After dinner, Alex and Edana were given a camera by Snape and sent off to bother the first years. Edana arranged them so no one was hidden.

"Why?" Demanded a tiny witch.

Edana smirked, recalling Aileen's words of five years ago. "It's a tradition."

Any further protests were cut off when Alex snapped the picture.

The first years returned to the table as Alex and Edana brought the camera back to Snape. The professor, however, had a surprise for the two new prefects.

"Your turn." He said, forcing them to stand in front of the Slytherin banner. After the flash went off, blinding both fifth years, they staggered back to their seats until the time came for the first years to be shown to the common room. This task, like the picture, traditionally fell to the youngest prefects.

* * *

It had become the habit of Professor Wormwood, carried on by Snape, to meet individually with the fifth year students to help them determine and plan for their post-Hogwarts careers. Edana's turn came on a rainy Tuesday just after the first Quidditch practice of the school year.

Soaked to the skin from flying about in the rain, Edana was able to correct her appearance to some degree after drying off with a tricky little charm she had read about at Malfoy Manor's library. 

She knocked on the door of Snape's office and waited for him to call her in.

"Miss Rosier, come in," Snape requested and Edana moved into the room and into the single chair positioned in front of his desk.

There were no notes, roles of parchment or anything else to assist the professor during these meetings other than his memory. It was rumored about the school that Snape was like an elephant, he never forgot, though Edana always puzzled at the comparison.

As usual, Snape went right to the point. "What are your future plans?"

"I don't know, sir."

"Surely you must have some idea."

Edana managed a weak smile. "I've been rather preoccupied."

Snape nodded. "I suppose you have. The best careers are those that suit a wizard or witches strengths. Tell me, what do you perceive to be your strengths?"

"Charms, history and Quidditch," Edana replied promptly.

"I suppose playing Quidditch professionally is not your intention."

"No, it is not."

"Which leaves you with charms and history." Snape paused a long moment while he shuffled through his mental files. "Have you thought of working with the Experimental Charms Committee?"

"I can't see myself at the Ministry, even if they would take me."

"Perhaps, if you appreciate history - as you few students here do - you might wish to join the Wizarding Archeological Society. They have a department here in Britain."

"They would not hire me," Edana said fatalistically.

"And why not? I recall reading that they are understaffed, and you have the skills they are looking for. With the appropriate OWL and NEWT scores, your overall academic record and faculty recommendations, they would welcome you." Here Snape cause again, this time to pierce her with a hard look. "Of course you would have to perform well on the Defense Against Art Arts portions of your exams."

Edana felt the spark of home that had been rising within her flicker out and die. "I'll never be able to 'perform well' on that part of exams. I only pass DADA with the marks I have now because of all the extra credit I hand in."

"Miss Rosier," Snape cut in sharply. "If you wish to wallow in self pity you may do so in your dormitory. If, however, you wish to succeed you may stay."

Edana did not move.

Snape continued. "I am rather skilled at Defense Against the Darks Arts and would not be adverse to tutoring you, but be warned, I am not an easy taskmaster. I expect promptness and hard work or I will not continue to help you. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Read chapter nineteen of your textbook and come to see me on the eighteenth at nine." 

* * *

Next Chapter: Edana's birthday, study sessions with Snape, and the OWLs.

* * *

Chapter Fourteen Reviewers:

googoo4you: I write this from an outline, but frequently make changes as additional ideas strike me. For instance the next chapter was broken in two due to so much going on. As for an Edana/Lucius confrontation, there is definitely one in the works. 


	16. A Time of Testing

****

"A Slytherin Black Sheep"  
Chapter Sixteen: A Time of Testing

"_In between the sand and stone  
could you make it on your own?_"

- "_Wherever You Will Go" _by The Calling

It only occurred to Edana after she left Snape's office that the date of her first tutoring session with Snape was also her fifteenth birthday. She had made plans to meet Charlie in the castle rose garden that evening to celebrate, but the time of their rendezvous would have to be moved forward. Edana doubted Snape would appreciate being asked to reschedule their study session just because she wanted quality time with her boyfriend when he was doing her a favor by helping her at all.

She found Charlie in the library, doing research for his Herbology essay, and slipped him both her special smile and note as she passed by his table. Edana paused in the library doorway and turned around as if she had forgotten something. Charlie was still reading her brief note. He looked over a her a moment later and nodded. 

Edana's step was springy as she returned to her dorm to start on her reading. The old saying that one cannot have cake and eat it too kept coming to mind. Edana wondered who had come up with that saying in the first place. After a small amount of consideration, she concluded that individual could not have been a Slytherin, and turned her attention to the listing of curse types on page three.

* * *

At eight o'clock on the evening of her fifteenth birthday, Edana found Charlie waiting for her in the center of the castle rose garden. He had been seated on a bench with one arm hidden behind his back and a sheepish grin on his face. Charlie stood up and stepped forward as she approached and kissed her briefly on the lips, but in a way that left her flushed and dizzy.

"Happy Birthday Edana," he whispered into her ear as he presented her with a flawless white rose. 

Edana accepted the rose, the thorns were still attached so she had to be careful in handling it, but Edana never thought of removing them. She brought it close to her face so she could inhale its fragrance. "It's beautiful." She whispered.

"It's not as pretty as you are," Charlie said with great sincerity. Edana thought Charlie possessed a gift for taking a simple statement and making it sound like poetry to her ears. After speaking, he blushed and changed the subject. "I soaked it in a caldron full of plant preserving potion I made. That way it will never wilt."

Edana was ever more deeply touched by that revelation. Charlie had grown to despise potions and struggled with both the theoretical and practical areas of the subject. The potion he used on the rose was one only touched briefly on in class and if her memory was correct, hardly a simple concoction.

She stood up onto her tip toes and kissed Charlie thoroughly. Without words she was able to communicate how very much she appreciated his gift - especially the thought and time that had gone into it.

* * *

It was difficult for Edana and Charlie to say good night to each other, but Edana had an appointment to keep with Professor Snape. After leaving the rose garden, Edana stopped at a girl's toilet along the way to splash water on her face, fix her hair, and smooth out her rumpled robes with a few spells. As she checked over her appearance for a final time, she reflected upon how wonderful it was to be able to use magic again. Every summer since she went off to Hogwarts she felt as though she were wrapped in cotton wool and shoved into a drawer for two months. When she was with the Malfoys, she felt as though the drawer were in imminent danger of being thrown into a working fireplace. Being back and safe from them for a time shrank her list of troubles to a far more manageable size.

Edana knocked on Snape's office door. It opened slowly to allow her inside where she found Snape seated behind his desk with a copy of the book he had given Edana to read open in front of him. He closed the book and set it down as Edana took her seat. For a moment he studied her in silence with his piercing black eyes. Edana tried not to squirm, but it was a battle she started to lose after thirty seconds. Snape was renowned for his skill at cursing, which required unbroken eye contact, and had learned not to blink often. It was a habit unnerving in other contexts.

"What did you think of the way Barnstorm used to deal with the vampire?" Snape was not one to bother with preliminaries.

She swallowed hard, trying to cobble an answer together in her mind. Her words were soft and with much space between them. "I thought his timing was strange."

"Why?" Snape demanded.

Edana elaborated. "He waited until after the vampire fed upon the villagers, when the vampire was gorged with their blood. If he had attacked before, instead of waiting, the vampire would have been easier to defeat because he was distracted by his blood-lust."

"An interesting argument, Miss Rosier," Snape said after a long moment of silence. "But by waiting until after the vampire fed, the creature's defenses were lowered. Once a goal is attained, most do not maintain their guard. Additionally, though it is not mentioned explicitly in the book, after a vampire drinks blood his or her powers are lessoned for a time. It is a brief window."

"Oh," Edana said, feeling foolish for not knowing that fact. "I've never read that."

"Many of the books available to the general public have such useful tidbits removed before publication. In this case, those vampires who abide by the law and feed only on livestock fear that if their post-feeding vulnerability were widely known then they would be attacked each time they exited their barns." Snape explained in a tone that told Edana how low his opinion of the intelligence of the general wizard population really was. "Still, there are ways to discover such thing."

"By reading between the lines?"

"That is one way."

Snape drilled her for another forty minutes before he pulled another thick book from his desk drawer and handed it to Edana. This one smelled of mildew and dust. Edana could not even read the title.

"Read up to chapter eleven before next week," Snape instructed.

"Thank you, sir."

"Miss Rosier?" Snape said.

"Yes?"

"Happy birthday."

Edana almost dropped the book in surprise. Snape was not known for keeping track of such personal details about his students. "Thank you, sir."

Snape's mouth curled into a small smile. "You are surprised I remembered."

Edana nodded. It was not smart to lie to Snape unless you were certain that your cover was unbreakable.

"I do remember the past, Miss Rosier." Snape said with a peculiar emphasis on her surname. "Which is one of the reasons why I am helping you. Now, go to bed, unless that is you plan to meet the Weasley boy."

Edana's jaw dropped open. "You know?" A second later she mentally kicked herself. If Snape was voicing a suspicion then she had just confirmed it for him.

"Take my advice Miss Rosier, continue keep your relationship a secret. Lucius Malfoy wants something from you and will be looking for whatever he can use to get it."

"I know." Edana told him.

Snape nodded his head. "I admit to feeling somewhat... protective of you. Not merely because you are a student and an orphan, but because her family was always kind to me. Kindness has been rare in my life. I trust this conversation will remain between us alone."

"It will," Edana assured him.

* * *

****

After completing the lengthy application scrolls and sending them off with a school owl in late October, Edana finally received an answer from the Wizarding Archeological Society just before Christmas. She sliced the thick envelope open with her butter knife even before untying it from the owl's leg. 

"Edana?" Alex tried to nudge her in the side. She ignored him.

It was only after she had perused the contents that Alex was able to point out that she had yet to detach the message from the carrier.

"Sorry about that," Edana told the owl, her cheeks burning. She felt like an overeager kid just accepted into Hogwarts. She gave him some of her bacon as an apology before sending the indignant owl on his way.

The Wizarding Archeological Society had received her application and would consider her as a potential member pending the forwarding of her OWL and NEWT scores. It was not an acceptance, but it was a first step. For the rest of the day, Edana smiled constantly, feeling as though someone had attached springs onto the soles of her shoes.

The next day was a Hogsmeade weekend, the last before the end of term, and Edana met Charlie by the lake with a basket full of cakes and butterbeers she had purchased at the Three Broomsticks. For December the weather was unusually mild. They opened the bottles and sat out by the lake on a blanket, enjoying the simple pleasure of their company and surroundings. 

Charlie sat up suddenly. "What was that?"

"What was what?" Edana asked, yawning. She did not notice anything unusual.

Charlie shook his head. "I thought I saw a light for a moment like a _lumos_ spell near the tree line."

Edana glanced at the area her boyfriend was looking towards. It was near the Owlery. "Probably someone heading back to the school from owling their parents. It is getting rather dark."

"Probably," Charlie said. He did not sound as though he believed his own words.

* * *

In early June, Edana broke her wrist during practice the day before the final against Gryffindor. After healing her, Madam Pomfrey refused to allow Edana to participate in the upcoming match. No amount of pleading would sway the school nurse.

"You still have several healing potions in your bloodstream that could cause you black out during the match!" Pomfrey said firmly.

"But that match isn't until tomorrow!" Edana protested.

Pomfrey shot the Slytherin her most hawklike glare. "I am aware of that."

So it was that Edana was forced to concede defeat. She sat in the stands during a Slytherin match for the first time since she was made a Chaser in her second year. Though she would never tell her team, Edana was far more nervous about her upcoming OWLS than the outcome of the match. Quidditch came naturally to her, Defense Against the Dark Arts did not.

The new Slytherin seeker was good, at least against Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, but in Edana's estimation not skilled enough to beat Charlie without a mistake on Charlie's part or a strong dose of luck. Still, she held out hope for a Slytherin victory.

Madam Hootch released the balls. Edana had to strain to see what was occurring above her. In particular she focused on her replacement, Alicia Corri. The fourth year was good, but lacked practice. She was not certain as to when and to whom she should pass the Quaffle when it came into her possession.

Fifteen minutes into the match, and three Slytherin goals later, it was over. Charlie swooped down to snatch the snitch seconds before the Slytherin seekers fingers closed around it. Despite her boyfriend having won the match, Edana was not pleased. As a Slytherin she wanted her house to win the cup.

* * *

The first day of the OWLS was also when the Defense Against Dark Arts and Potions portions were given. Edana thought it very unfair to have her worst subject first. She was so nervous she felt as though she had swallowed a jar full of Cornish pixies. Around her, the other fifth year Slytherins were uncharacteristically subdued. They failed to give the Gryffindors do much as a sneer.

From his seat across the room, Charlie caught Edana's eye and gave her a reassuring smile. Edana had never before envied Charlie's laid back attitude as much as she did at that moment. He looked so unruffled and cool despite the imminent arrival of the Potions portion.

Despite all the drilling from Snape and the volumes of addition material she had poured over, Edana doubted her ability to do well. She thought she would pass, but not by much. The test had become more than a simple exam: it would determine her future and be a victory over her past. The Dark Lord had damaged her ability to curse, and a high score on the test would be a symbolic victory over him for her.

Professor McGonagall passed out the anti-cheating quills, even though the OWLS were essay based examinations. After lecturing them sternly and admonishing them to do well for the sake of Hogwarts reputation, she turned over a large hourglass on her desk. Black sand began to trickle down to the bottom.

"You may begin."

Edana opened her test booklet. There were nine mandatory portions - Defense Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms, Magical History, Astronomy, Herbology, Magical Theory, and Basic Wizarding Law to the OWLS though students could request to take examinations in their elective subjects or special interests for a maximum of score of 14. A high score in a portion was rated as one OWL, an average score a partial and a failing score was not tallied at all. Edana had chosen to take an additional history and charms test as well as both of her electives for a maximum possible score of 13.

Each portion was divided into two portions - short answer and essay. Edana traced the first question with her finger as she read it carefully.

1_. Describe at least two possible applications for a Patronus Charm._

She thought for a moment before scribbling down her answer

A Patronus Charm is the only known defense against a lethifold. It is also the only spell effective against the Dementors of Azkaban.

* * *

A week after the OWLs, Snape darkened the entrance to the Slytherin Common room. The pictures on the wall all stared at him, the first years cowering behind furniture and the older students smirking and settling back for the show. It was the duty of the heads of houses hand out the results of their students examinations.

Snape's face was blank as he called the fifth years up one by one and handed them the sealed parchment containing their results. Not one so much as bent the envelope - it was tradition to wait until everyone had received their results so the house could celebrate or commiserate as one.

After Braedan Zeno sat down, the fifth years stared at the parchments in their laps with trepidation. Edana felt as though she were about to cry. Kali was biting her lip, Malina was shaking. Of the girls only Dru appeared unruffled.

"Come on, time to bite the bullet." Sixth years called. Another unwritten house tradition called for older students to heckle the fifth years awaiting their OWL scores, with the sixth years being the most enthusiastic. Last year they had been the ones staring at their laps and growing whiter by the minute.

"No amount of wishing will alter the scores on your parchment," Snape said with a soft sneer. Edana thought she detected just a hint of sympathy in his voice. He was very young as professors went and the memory of his own OWL results must still be clear.

The fifth years remained still until Dru let out a nervous laugh and ripped open her letter. She scanned the parchment, her head tilted forward and her blond hair forming a curtain that concealed her reaction. A long moment later, Dru's head shot up and she let out a delighted shout. "I got ten!"

"A respectable score," Snape acknowledged with pride. Edana felt his eyes on her. She submitted to her own curiosity and tugged the envelope open and unfolded the contents until she could read the results.

A trembling finger traced down the neatly printed columns of scores until she reached the Defense Against the Dark Arts mark. She read it.

Then she read it again and shrieked. "Thirteen owls! I even aced the Dark Arts portion!"

* * *

Next Chapter: Edana comes of age and deals with Lucius Malfoy.

* * *

Chapter Fifteen Reviewers: , Faith, Googoo4you

Arun: The story will soon jump ahead to continue from the where the first chapter left Edana. 

Faith: I'm quite proud of the picture tradition. 

Googoo4you: The Binding was tricky and born out of a desire to a: give Edana a magical handicap, b: make her hate Voldemort, and c: show how obsessed the DE's were. Remember: two other kids DIED before Edana's mother brought her to Voldemort for the Binding.


	17. A Darker Force

**"A Slytherin Black Sheep" **

**Chapter Seventeen: A Darker Force **

_"And now I'm all alone again _

_No where to turn, no one to go to. _

_Without a home, without a friend, _

_Without a face to say hello to." _

_-"On my Own," Les Miserables _

It seemed only the day before that Edana started at Hogwarts. Then one morning she woke up and found herself in her seventh year staring down her NEWTS. The Wizarding Archeological Society would officially accept her unless she did poorly on the NEWTS, so Edana combated her unexpected burst of fear and sentimentality by studying like mad. Charlie teased her that she had moved into the library. 

She was having a hard time focusing since her mind refused to consider anything but the upcoming Quidditch final against Gryffindor. Despite dating the opposing captain/seeker, Edana wanted very much to leave Hogwarts with a victory under her belt. Not being chosen for head girl hurt, but she had gotten over the worst of her disappointment. Ravenclaw Thalia Blakely, Head Girl, has done a wonderful job, but Edana could not help but ponder what she might have done had the position been awarded to her instead. Edana could not help but wonder if her family was held against her in the selection. It was one thing to be made a prefect from a house famed for its Darker members, but quite another to be held up as an example for the entire school. 

All in all, Edana was excited about leaving Hogwarts, but more than a little concerned as Lucius Malfoy had been owling her since her birthday last in September, wanting to meet. Thus far she was able to plead lack of time with her NEWT studies and Quidditch practices consuming her hours. Lucius appeared to accept this explanation, instead writing that he would meet her when she arrived home in June. Her home, the family estate she could now claim as she was of age. 

His easy acceptance unnerved Edana, but she comforted herself with the thought she would at least be on her home ground. 

* * * 

Edana passed the Quaffle to her fellow Chaser Melinda Barnes, a fourth year girl just moved up from reserves. In the time since Melinda filled in for Edana at another final match, Edana had taken the other girl her under her wing. Edana hoped that after she left Melinda would carry on the tradition of excellence in chasing that she and Hodge had established. With two of the three Chasers in their seventh years, the two older students had spent a great deal of time both instructing and threatening Melinda along with the two reserve chasers. 

Melinda feigned a pass to Hodge, but at the last second switched to Edana. The delay while the Gryffindors changed direction bought Edana enough time to enter the scoring area. One of the opposing chasers was mounted on a Nimbus and the faster broom easily narrowed the distance between himself and Edana. As she threw the Quaffle, the Gryffindor chaser tried to snatch it, but missed by millimeters. 

"Slytherin scores," the commentator, a Hufflepuff, announced. It was a flat comment, without the enthusiasm that would have been present had Gryffindor been the one to make the goal.

Edana punched the air in triumph, but the euphoria from scoring was not something she could pause long to savor. The game continued. As she brought herself around, the Gryffindor Keeper tossed the Quaffle to one of their chasers.

"Gryffindor in possession…" the Hufflepuff said with undisguised glee. 

_Not for long, Edana thought as she saw Hodge pull along side the enemy chaser. _

Hodge snatched the Quaffle from the Gryffindor Chaser and Slytherin beater Allan hit a bludger at Charlie, knicking his left arm. The Commentator was hard put to keep the resentment out of his voice as he growled, "excellent ploy by the Slytherin Beaters. They have obviously committed the first rule of the _Beater's Bible to memory: take out the Seeker." _

Edana winced in sympathy as she glimpsed Charlie's face, but she knew he would take it. He was right handed and could still play. Edana bottled up her concerns: Charlie would be all right, her focus must be on the match. 

The momentary distraction as she glanced at Charlie was all the Gryffindor beater needed to send a bludger her way. She did not notice her danger until the Blugder was inches from her. She tried to pull away, but the bludger still grazed her forehead. Edana distantly felt her body go limp and slump against her broom before everything was swallowed by darkness. 

* * * 

Edana did not like losing consciousness. The return was littered with traps. As soon as she opened her eyes in the too-bright infirmary she regretted it. She heard the squeak of Madam Pomfrey's thick-soled shoes on the floor as she flew to her patient's side. 

"I feel ill," Edana whispered. Had her eyes not been closed she would have seen the nurse give her an understanding look as she handed her a basin. After Edana was thoroughly sick in the basin and had rinsed out her mouth, she felt a hundredfold better. 

An hour later half of the Quidditch team arrived. They had changed back into their school robes and did not reek of alcohol and butterbeer. From that, Edana realized they must have lost. 

"We lost again, didn't we?" Edana rasped. 

The team stared down at their shoes. It was really quite cute that they would do that in unison, but Edana wanted answers, not synchronized staring. 

"We lost," Melinda confirmed, raising her eyes to meet Edana's gaze. She tugged off her glasses and proceeded to clean then with the sleeve of her robe. "For the sixth year in a row." 

"Weasley leaves this year," Beater Allan, reminded them. 

"Thank Merlin," muttered Melinda. 

"I leave as well," Edana reminded her. "And I'm not the only one." 

"Maybe next years team won't be so depressed," Melinda said. Her lip twitched a little. 

"Best you not be, or all us seventh years will owl you hexes!" 

The team left shortly after to take advantage of the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year. Edana was given a headache potion and sent back to her dormitory. As she left the infirmary, Charlie emerged and pulled her into an empty classroom by the arm. 

"You wouldn't be thinking of taking advantage of me, would you? I have several medical potions sloshing about in my veins." 

Charlie grinned. "Maybe later. I have'nt seen much of you lately. Quidditch and NEWT studies don't leave much time - and after seeing you get hurt today…" 

Edana moved her hand to his faced and pressed her fingers over his lips. "We'll be leaving soon. No more NEWT worries, no Slytherin and Gryffindor rivalries to confront every day." 

"Just the real world to contend with," he sighed. 

"I'll be applying to work at Stonehenge and you'll be working with dragons." 

Charlie's smile rivaled the sunrise in brilliance. "You paint a pretty portrait." 

"With words, I have no artistic talent whatsoever," Edana teased. Her tone was light but both she and Charlie knew how few dragon reservation positions to be had. She resolved to but such worries on the back shelf of her mind for the time being. 

"I knew you had a flaw somewhere!" 

Edana laughed. "And so now you know." 

* * * 

The NEWT examinations came and went, Edana thought that after the OWLS they were almost disappointing. Of course, Edana had to concede that her disappointment of leaving Hogwarts without at least once winning the Quidditch Cup cast a pall over events for the remaining few weeks of term. 

Still, her scores were enough for her future plans and she was pleased if not ecstatic with them. 

"One more would have been lovely," she grumbled. 

"Your scores are perfectly acceptable…unless you care to trade with Malina?" Dru asked in her lilting voice. Both witches grinned: Malina's scores were the worst in their house and she had made no secret of her displeasure. 

* * * 

For the final time, Edana stepped off the Hogwarts Express and hauled her trunk unto a cart. All around her were other students promising to owl often, hugs, and fare-thee-wells. The departing seventh years were the easiest to spot. Even Malina was staring at the train with disbelief. 

"It doesn't seem possible, does it?" 

Edana jumped and turned around to see Dru and Kali with their trunks. Beyond them were their families.

"I keep having to remind myself that I won't be coming back next year," Dru sighed. 

"I think we all have. Hogwarts becomes a part of you," Edana agreed. 

"Just think," Kali said with a hint of mischief, "that the next time we stand on this platform will be when we send our children off to their first years!" 

Dru appeared stricken. "Maybe for you, but I intend to teach someday." 

"To provide future Slytherins with a class other than potions to excel in?" Kali teased. 

"Quite." 

All three laughed, tears streaking down their eyes that had nothing to do with humor. No one said anything about them though. 

* * * 

Lucius Malfoy was waiting for Edana at her house. It was peculiar seeing him standing on the front steps, but she knew that he was not keyed to the wards and thus could not enter unescorted. The indignity lent him a sharper edge that made Edana swallow hard. 

"Cousin Lucius," Edana called out with a manufactured air of one actually pleased to see a relative. She waved and walked over to him. 

"Edana," Malfoy greeted her flatly. "I've been meaning to speak to you for some time. I know that your family did not leave you much in the way of gold, so I thought I might like to buy an old amulet of your mothers. I would give you the money outright – but I am aware of how your family feels with regard to standing on your own." 

"Which amulet?" Edana asked, pretending to be ignorant of his interest in the Mirror of Truth. "I'm rather fond of some of them." 

"The Mirror of Truth." 

Edana made her eyes wide with feigned surprise. "The last one my mother created? But I have already arranged to have it donated to the Harbrace Museum." 

The Harbrace Museum was renowned for its tight security – and its strong ties to both Hogwarts and Albus Dumbledore. 

Lucius was angry, but fought to conceal it. After a moment he ceased trying and the mask of civility fell away. 

"I suggest you retrieve the amulet. I have many contacts within the Wizarding Archeological Society and can 'recommend' that you shunted aside to a paperwork position." Lucius continued, "or I could make it very difficult for the Weasley boy, dragon keepers are a highly sought after and dangerous position."

"Why should I care about a Weasley," Edana sneered. Her hear thumped hard in her chest and she felt fear ice her spin. 

Lucius favored her with a predatory smile as he removed a parchment envelope from his robes. Inside where pictures of her and Charlie: walking on the edge of the forrest, snogging by the lake and simply talking. "You ought to exercise greater discretion. to be more discrete. I've known that you have been seeing the Weasley boy for over two years. It would be such a shame if something _unfortunate_ happened to him, but then the Weasley's have so many children they might not notice his loss." 

With that, Lucius turned on his heel and left a stunned Edana to digest his words. 


End file.
